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US 7,465,378 B2Granted
Method for reactive sputtering deposition
AssigneeCardinal CG Company
InventorsTomas Nyberg, Sören Berg
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AssigneeCardinal CG Company
InventorsTomas Nyberg, Sören Berg
Estimating the term…
The invention is a method for obtaining a reactive sputtering process with a reduced or eliminated hysteresis behavior. This is achieved by focusing the ion current onto a small area, a reduced erosion area (14), which is in constant motion along the target (10) to avoid melting of target material. This means that the current density is very high at the reduced erosion area (14) while the average overall current density is significantly lower. The problem with arcing during reactive sputtering will be suppressed since the compound layer is effectively removed if the current density is sufficiently high. Moreover, the high current density results in a substantial increase of the fraction of ionized sputtered species.
A reactive sputtering process with an eliminated hysteresis behavior involving a cylindrical target having a cylinder-axis, the cylindrical target having magnets inside the target, wherein an erosion area parallel to the cylinder-axis is arranged on the target and reduced to form a reduced erosion area having a size smaller than a critical size needed for the sputtering process to proceed reactively with an eliminated hysteresis behavior, and causing relative movement of the target and the erosion area, the movement being at a speed above a minimum speed that avoids melting of target material and below a maximum speed that maintains a major part of the reduced erosion area in metal mode.
A method for obtaining a reactive sputtering process with an eliminated hysteresis behavior comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.