Paper SE+PS-MoA7
High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS): Scaling Up to the Industrial Level

Monday, October 15, 2007, 4:00 pm, Room 617

High Power Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS or HPPMS) is a novel magnetron sputtering technique that draws increasing interest due to the ability to form the droplet-free films out of highly ionized vapor of the target material. Invented by Kouznetsov in 1999 (US patent US6296742) HIPIMS has gone the long way and is nowadays entering the stage of commercial applications. The focus of the work presented here is the basic parameter study performed on the industrial system equipped with HIPIMS power supply capable of delivering up to 10 kW average power in MW pulses. The target material used is Ti/Al and Ti. Purely metallic films, as well as, reactively sputtered TiAlN and TiN films were grown. The deposition rate and film quality were studied as a function of the energy per pulse (up to 20J), pulsing frequency (up to 500Hz), working gas pressure and the substrate bias. The degree of ionization, that was simultaneously monitored with optical emission, reached 90% under optimum conditions. Results are compared to the films produced with the state-of-the-art industrial DC coater. It is apparent from this study that the technique can be successfully used in the industrial applications.