Advantages and Disadvantages of Magnetron Sputtering

Magnetron sputtering, a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process, is the main thin film deposition method for manufacturing semiconductor, disk drive, CD and optical devices. Magnetron sputtering has evolved since the 1970s, which has the advantages of high speed, low temperature and low damage. Magnetron sputtering has been rapidly developed and widely used since its inception, which has strongly impacted the status of other coating methods. It is mainly determined by its following advantages:

1. The deposition speed of magnetron sputtering is fast, the requirement of substrate temperature rise is low, and the damage to the film is small;

2. For most materials, as long as they can be made into the sputtering targets, they can be coated by magnetron sputtering;

3. The bonding performance between the thin film and the substrate obtained by magnetron sputtering is good;

4. The thin film obtained by magnetron sputtering has high purity, good density and good film formation uniformity;

5. The repeatability of the magnetron sputtering process is good, and a thin film with a uniform thickness can be obtained on a large area substrate;

6. This coating method can accurately control the thickness of the coating, and at the same time, the particle size of the constituent thin film can be controlled by changing parameter conditions;

7. Different metals, alloys and oxides can be mixed and sputtered on the substrate at the same time;

8. Easy to realize industrialization.

However, there are also some problems with magnetron sputtering, mainly including:

1. The ring-shaped magnetic field used by magnetron sputtering forces the secondary electron to jump around the ring-shaped magnetic field. Accordingly, the area controlled by the annular magnetic field is the part where the plasma density is the highest. During magnetron sputtering, it can be seen that the sputtering gas, argon, emits a strong light blue glow at this part, forming a halo. The target under the halo is the most severely bombarded by ions, and a ring-shaped groove will be sputtered. The ring-shaped magnetic field is the orbit of the electron movement, and the ring-shaped glow and groove show it vividly. Once the sputtering groove of the magnetron sputtering target penetrates the target, it will cause the entire target to be scrapped, so the utilization rate of the target is not high, generally less than 40%;

2. The plasma is unstable;

3. Low temperature and high speed sputtering of ferromagnetic materials cannot be realized. Since almost all magnetic fluxes cannot pass through the magnetic target, it is not possible to add an external magnetic field near the target surface.

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