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US 8,025,749 B2Granted
Ultrafine-grain-copper-base sputter targets
AssigneePraxair S. T. Technology, Inc.
InventorsAndrew C. Perry, Paul S. Gilman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The sputter target has a composition selected from the group consisting of high-purity copper and copper-base alloys. The sputter target's grain structure is at least about 99 percent recrystallized; and the sputter target's face has a grain orientation ratio of at least about 10 percent each of (111), (200), (220) and (311). In addition, the sputter target has a grain size of less than about 10 μm for improving sputter uniformity and reducing sputter target arcing.
Claims9
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 high-purity copper composition;
- 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 at a temperature of about 150 to 300° C. 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, wherein said fine grain size is 10 μm or less;
- 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 10 μm.
2 more elements
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 high-purity copper composition;
- 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 at a temperature of about 150 to 300° C. 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, wherein said fine grain size is 10 μm or less;
- 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 10 μm and the sputter target blank has a sputter target face, the sputter target face having a grain orientation ratio of at least about 10 percent each of (111), (200), (220) and (311).
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.