Advantages and Disadvantages of Magnetron Sputtering Technology

The working principle of magnetron sputtering is that electrons collide with argon atoms in the process of flying to the substrate under the action of electric field E, resulting in AR-positive ions and new electrons.

New electrons fly to the substrate, and Ar ions accelerate to the cathode target under the electric field's action and bombard the target surface with high energy, resulting in sputtering of the target.

 

Since the appearance of magnetron sputtering, it has obtained rapid development and wide application, which has greatly impacted other coating methods. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of magnetron sputtering technology?

1. The deposition speed is fast, the substrate temperature rise is low, and the damage to the film is small.

2. For most materials, sputtering can be realized as long as scrape materials can be made.

3. The films obtained by sputtering are well combined with the substrate.

4. The films obtained by sputtering have high purity, good compactness, and good film-forming uniformity.

5. The sputtering process has good repeatability, and the film with a uniform thickness can be obtained on a large area substrate.

6. At the same time, the film's particle size can be controlled by changing the parameters.

7. Different metals, alloys, and oxides can be mixed and sputtered on the substrate simultaneously.

8. Easy to industrialize.

1. The ring magnetic field used by magnetron sputtering forces the secondary electrons to move around the ring magnetic field. Accordingly, the region controlled by the annular magnetic field is the place with the highest plasma density.

We can see that the sputtering gas argon emits a strong light blue glow in this area during magnetron sputtering, forming a halo. The halo's target is the most serious part bombarded by ions, which will splash out a ring-shaped groove. The circular magnetic field is the orbit of electron motion, vividly represented by the circular flow and groove.

Once the sputtering groove of the magnetron sputtering target penetrates the target, the whole target will be scrapped, so the target's utilization rate is not high, generally lower than 40%.
 

2. Plasma instability.
 

3. It is impossible to achieve high-speed sputtering at low temperature for strong magnetic materials because almost all magnetic flux can not pass through the magnetic target, so it is impossible to add an external strengthening magnetic field near the target surface.