Controlled-grain-precious metal sputter targets

A method of forming sputter targets comprising the steps of:

• a) cooling a target blank to a temperature of less than about −50° C., the target blank having grains having an initial grain size and a composition selected from the group consisting of platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, osmium, silver, gold and single-phase alloys thereof;
• b) deforming the cooled target blank to introduce strain into the target blank and to form a deformed grain structure;
• c) recrystallizing the deformed grain structure to form a target blank having recrystallized grains, the target blank having at least about 99 percent recrystallized grains and the recrystallized grains having a fine grain size smaller than the initial grain size;
• and
• d) finishing the target blank to form a finished sputter target at a low temperature sufficient to maintain the fine grain size of the finished sputter target at less than about 200 μm and a face centered rain orientation in the (111), (200), (220) and (311) directions for improving sputter uniformity, the sputter target has a grain orientation ratio of at least about 10 percent each of the (111), (200), (220) and (311).