Design, characterisation and operation of an inverted cylindrical magnetron for metal deposition

An inverted cylindrical magnetron device for a continuous all-side deposition of metal films onto wires and temperature-sensitive synthetic fibres was designed and tested. Design features of interest include easy assembly and disassembly of the device for maintenance and upgrading. Using silver as a sputter target, the important performance characteristics including the influence of magnetic field strength, the IV-characteristics, the deposition rate and homogeneity, the erosion profiles of the cathode and the heat load on free-standing substrates were determined. The deposition rate and the substrate temperature were found to be closely related to the sputtering power. Optimum operating conditions, combining a low heat load and a high deposition rate, were determined. In the centre region, a maximum deposition rate of 1800 nm/min was achieved. The erosion profile of the sputter target resulted in a utilisation efficiency of 57%.

[1]  G. Franz.  Oberflächentechnologie mit Niederdruckplasmen , 1994 .

[2]  R. Yuan,et al.  A description of metal-vapour production in a hollow-cylindrical magnetron sputtering discharge , 1999 .

[3]  S. Krishnamurthy,et al.  Processing of continuously reinforced Ti-alloy metal matrix composites (MMC) by magnetron sputtering , 1998 .

[4]  Stephen M. Rossnagel,et al.  Gas density reduction effects in magnetrons , 1988 .

[5]  J. Reece Roth,et al.  Industrial Plasma Engineering : Volume 1: Principles , 1995 .

[6]  G. M. Turner,et al.  Measured radial and angular distributions of sputtered atoms in a planar magnetron discharge , 1994 .

[7]  O. Nittono,et al.  Improved design of inverted magnetrons used for deposition of thin films on wires , 1997 .

[8]  V. Lindberg,et al.  Recent developments in inverted cylindrical magnetron sputtering , 2001 .

[9]  R. K. Waits.  Planar magnetron sputtering , 1978 .

[10]  R. Loutfy,et al.  Improved hollow cathode magnetron deposition for producing high thermal conductivity graphite-copper composite , 1995 .

[11]  B. Tao,et al.  The effect of deposition rate on the microstructure of YBCO thin films prepared by inverted cylindrical magnetron sputtering , 2002 .

[12]  J. Goree,et al.  Magnetic field dependence of sputtering magnetron efficiency , 1991 .

[13]  S. Maniv,et al.  The current‐voltage characteristic of magnetron sputtering systems , 1983 .

[14]  G. Linker,et al.  HTSC thin film growth by inverted cylindrical magnetron sputtering , 1992 .