How to select high-quality sputtering targets?

• Report this article

Susan Jia

Please visit our website for more information on this topic.

Susan Jia

Sale manager | Sputtering Targets | Metal Materials services for PVD coating | Ti | Zr | Mo | Cr | Ta | Cu | Al | Nb | Metal Alloy | Precious metal

Published Apr 10, 2018

+ Follow

• Purity

Purity is one of the main performance indicators of sputtering targets, because the purity of the targets has a great influence on the performance of the thin film. Commonly, different applications, different purity. The purity demand in electronic and semiconductor is much more higher than in mode and tool coating and decorative coating.

• Impurity content

Impurities in the sputtering targets, oxygen and moisture in the pores are the major sources of contamination of the deposited film. Targets for different purposes have different requirements for the content of different impurities.

• Density

In order to reduce the porosity in the targets and improve the performance of the thin film, the target is usually required to have a higher density. The density of the target not only affects the sputtering rate, but also affects the electrical and optical properties of the film. The higher density, the better thin film performance. In addition, increasing the density and strength of the targets makes it withstand thermal stresses during the sputtering process better. 

• Grain size and grain size distribution

Usually sputtering target is a polycrystalline structure, and the grain size ranges micrometers to millimeters. For the same kind targets, the sputtering rate of the fine-grained target is faster than that of the coarse-grained target; and the thickness distribution of the sputter-deposited thin film of the target with smaller (uniformly distributed) grain size is more uniform. 

Help improve contributions

Mark contributions as unhelpful if you find them irrelevant or not valuable to the article. This feedback is private to you and won’t be shared publicly.

Contribution hidden for you

This feedback is never shared publicly, we’ll use it to show better contributions to everyone.

Well, the question “what is the sputtering target” may seem stupid for insiders. But undoubtedly it is the most basic question in the relevant industry. Search this question in Google, you may find 3,770,000 results, which is quite a HUGE number! Just compare it with 4,510,000 results of searching “sputtering target”. (data may differ)

Acetron are exported all over the world and different industries with quality first. Our belief is to provide our customers with more and better high value-added products. Let's create a better future together.

So here comes my question, do you really get the answer? Well, I guess not, or you won’t click into this article, right? Believe it or not, I did the same thing as you did, searching in a sea of resources, but the answer I could find is either too broad/general or too academic. As a result, I got nothing but an advertisement. Trust me, clicking into this article is the best choice you have made! Here I promise you that SAM Sputter Target will give you an easy-to-understand answer to “what is the sputtering target”. Here we go.

First, let’s talked about its name—sputtering target. “Target” in “sputtering target” is derived from the shooting target, which is very common in our life. In the process of material deposition, the coating material is bombarded by electron beam or ion beam, just like the target being shot, so such material got its name as “target”. After knowing how the name came from, you may think “sputtering target” is not weird anymore.

Then let’s get to the point. The sputtering target is actually a broad concept, including many categories such as metal sputtering target, alloy sputtering target, ceramic sputtering target and so on. That’s why you always find broad answers. So let’s just illustrate by examples.

You must have heard about GOLD, right? It is very shining, very beautiful, and, of course, very expensive. Therefore, people often use gold sputter coating instead of pure gold in the daily production, and the gold sputtering target is an indispensable raw material for gold sputter coating. So what’s the difference between gold and gold sputtering target? SAME! They have the same chemical substance—gold element, but the gold sputtering target is specially made to be installed in the sputter coating machines as the raw materials for sputter coating, as shown below. And it is similar to other sputtering targets. As for the shapes of the sputtering target, there are mainly planar target and rotatory target. For information about these two kinds of targets, you can refer to the Advantages and disadvantages of planar and rotatory targets.

I really hope that this article helps you understand what the sputtering target is. Here is SAM Sputter Target, a global evaporation material and sputtering target manufacturing company. We regularly update industrial knowledge and news on our website, please visit https://www.sputtertargets.net/ for more information.

 

 

How to select high-quality sputtering targets?

An easy-to-understand answer to “what is sputtering target”