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AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsKeith Miller, Anantha Subramani, Maurice Ewert, Tza-Jing Gung, Hong Yang, Vincent Burkhart
Estimating the term…
A continuously variable multi-position magnetron that is rotated about a central axis in back of a sputtering target at a freely selected radius. The position is dynamically controlled from the outside, for example, through a hydraulic actuator connected between a pivoting arm supporting the magnetron and an arm fixed to the shaft, by two coaxial shafts independent controllable from the outside and supporting the magnetron through a frog-leg mechanism, or a cable connected between the pivoting arms and moved by an external slider. The magnetron can be rotated at two, three, or more discrete radii or be moved in a continuous spiral pattern.
A method of sputtering in a plasma sputter reactor arranged about a central axis and having a target in opposition to a pedestal supporting a substrate to be sputter coated with a material of said target, including the steps of:
A method of sputtering, comprising the steps of:
The method of sputtering, wherein the rotating step rotates the magnetron for at least 360° at a each of a plurality of radii determined by the actuating step.
A sputtering magnetron, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.