Physical vapor deposition/sputtering

• Subject Area: Materials Engineering
• Term: Funded in 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 576387316

A physical vapor deposition (PVD) system, specifically for sputtering, is being applied for use in the clean room of the Department of Computer Science and Microsystems Technology at the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern, Campus Zweibrücken. The system will primarily be used by professors from the “Integrated Miniaturized Systems” (IMS) research focus as part of ongoing and planned research projects. The IMS research focus (www.hs-kl.de/ims) is very successful in interdisciplinary research and carries out numerous, primarily externally funded research projects with high-quality scientific publications. A particular focus of the research is on interdisciplinary projects at the interface of life sciences and microsystems technology, which develop, for example, novel biosensors, electrode arrays, electrophysiological measurement systems, and, in the future, micro implants and microfluidic systems. In order to manufacture such functional components and systems, the requested equipment is necessary as a central component of the process chains in the clean room. The application is for a PVD system with a sputtering chamber, bias generator, high vacuum pump stand, and substrate chamber, which is suitable for depositing very thin, uniform, adhesive layers, in particular of electrically conductive metals, metallic alloys, oxides, and nitrides on a substrate. These sputtered layers have excellent quality and homogeneity, meeting the requirements of challenging microsystem developments. Standard layer thicknesses are 5-300 nm, although layers up to a maximum of 1000 nm can be deposited. The application also includes several sputter targets as well as delivery and installation. The system will initially be operated in the current clean room at the Zweibrücken campus of the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern. A new clean room, which will replace and expand the current one, is planned by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and is expected to be ready for use in 2029. The requested system will then be reinstalled in the new clean room. The system is planned to be used in current and already approved research projects, for example for the development of peptide-based sensor platforms for immunodiagnostics and real-time analysis of inflammatory processes, graphene electrodes for the determination of neurotransmitters, for marker-free readout methods for the detection of viruses, for implant surfaces, or for the investigation of process-material property correlations (especially magnetic anisotropy) of CoP material for nano- and microcomponents. In proposed and planned research projects, the facility will be used, for example, for the development of high-precision 3D microcomponents for cell filtration at the chip level and in separation columns, of electrical biosensors with novel carbide/nitride functional layers (MXene), and alloy concepts for the local adjustment of fault-tolerant materials.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Physikalische Gasphasenabscheidung/Sputtern
• Instrumentation Group: 8330 Vakuumbedampfungsanlagen und -präparieranlagen für Elektronenmikroskopie
• Applicant Institution: Hochschule Kaiserslautern
• Leader: Professorin Dr. Monika Saumer