Plasmaterials, Inc.’s unique enhanced design sputtering targets are produced for use in the sputtering of precious metals and magnetic materials, thereby increasing target utilization. Through engineering design, the enhanced profile provides utilization factors far in excess of those conventionally found in planar designed targets. By taking the inverse of the erosion profile, thus increasing the target thickness in this area, Plasmaterials has developed long life targets with utilization approaching 100% and with longevity almost twice that of ordinary planar targets. These targets have increased volumes in the area of greatest wear and decreased volumes in areas where little or no deposition takes place. This unique capability is available for both planar and rotary designed cathode assemblies.
Plasmaterials, Inc. offers electron beam starter sources for utilization in Thin Film Deposition in both production and research applications. These pre-forms are manufactured to geometrically fit directly into the conically shaped e-beam hearths of all commercially available sources. These solid bulk sources save time and money by allowing the operator the freedom to directly deposit from a solid source without having to "pre-melt" pellets or granules into a solid geometry prior to deposition. As the pre-forms erode during subsequent deposition and use, additional material or "Make-Up Material" can be added or filled into the erosion cavity and easily liquefied and formed back into the solid. To properly condition a new charge of material placed in an electron beam hearth, it is generally necessary to carefully control the rise and soak times of the power supply while suitable controlling the beam positioning by rastoring the beam source to gradually heat all pieces of material located within the hearth. In doing so, heat must be transferred via conduction from those individual pieces located on top of the charge to those pieces located beneath them or below the surface. For most materials, this heat transfer is time consuming and inefficient, creating large thermal gradients within the charge. This either leads to non-uniform deposition and resultant films or to the characteristic "splatter" of material onto the substrate. This "splatter" typically results in large amounts of material condensing on the substrate from the vapor stream in a concentrated area. When these globules of material contract while condensing on the substrate, they form non-uniform thickness variations and often cause pin-holes. Electron beam starter sources alleviate the problem of non-uniform heating, splattering, thickness fluctuations and pin-hole formation by allowing heat to dissipate throughout the source in a controlled uniform manner. With proper heat rise and soak cycles, the uniform deposition of resultant films can typically be performed from the initial run of the source to the last utilization of the material. This helps resolve the usual run-to-run variations and fluctuations within a single process cycle.
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Atomic Number: 14 Composition: Si Density: 2.33 g/cc Melting Point: 1414 °C Purity: 99.999% Plasmaterials, Inc. offers silicon for PVD processing in many different forms. For planar sputtering target applications silicon can be produced either in single or polycrystalline crystallographic structures. Elemental silicon sputtering targets can also be doped with either boron or phosphorus to provide positive or negative charge formations for various semiconductor applications. Plasmaterials, Inc. also offers plasma sprayed silicon for rotatable target designs supplied on suitable backing tubes. Typically, planar silicon targets are metallically bonded to copper backing plates, however, they also can be supplied in monolithic form as required. Silicon evaporation material is supplied as random size pieces varying in size from 1-3mm, 3-6mm, 6-8mm or per customer specification. E-beam starter sources are also available in all the conventional sizes. Silicon sputtering targets may be deposited elementally to produce Si resultant films or reactively by adding a partial pressure of either oxygen or nitrogen to produce SiO2 or Si3N4 resultant films respectively. Sputtered thin films of silicon, whether coated as Si, SiO2 or Si3N4, have a broad range of applications. Just to name a few: microelectronics, durability coatings, optical filters, sensor, fiber optics, photovoltaic, anti-reflection, band pass filters, acoustical attenuation etc., etc., etc.
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Tantalum Sputtering Target Atomic Number: 73 Composition: Ta Density: 16.6 g/cc Melting Point: 5458 °C Purity: 99.95%, 99.99% Plasmaterials, Inc. offers tantalum for PVD applications in a variety of different forms either elementally or as an alloy combined with other materials. Planar sputtering targets are most common, but tantalum sputtering targets are also available as cathodic arc sources, as monolithic rotatable targets or as evaporation material in pellet form. Tantalum sputtering targets are available in all conventional sizes or they can be manufactured to fit any custom design system. Tantalum can be sputtered as an element to form Ta resultant films or sputtered reactively with partial pressures of oxygen or nitrogen to form Ta2O5 or Tan thin films respectively. Evaporation materials are supplied in ¼” dia. by ¼” long or ¼” by ½” long pellets or per customer supplied specifications. E-beam starter sources are also available to fit all conventional electron beam hearths. Sputtered thin films of tantalum are used in a variety of applications. Some typical applications include corrosion resistance products, vacuum tube grids and plates, capacitors, resisters, optical, photonic, electronic components, electrolytic capacitors, semiconductor coatings, dielectric mirrors, optical sensors, etc.
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Electron beam deposition sources are equipped with hot element filaments for electron emission, electro magnets for shaping and positioning the stream of electrons and suitable designed water cooled copper hearths to contain the source material to be deposited. Many materials can destructively react with these copper hearths at the temperatures typically encountered during vacuum deposition. In most cases, the material to be deposited is elevated in temperature to some level above the liquidus, making the copper hearth all that much more vulnerable to interaction with the molten material. Even for those materials that sublimate, the likelihood of some chemical interaction with the copper hearth is great. Additionally, by design, the water cooled hearth dissipates heat from the material being deposited at a rapid rate. This necessitates the use of more power and creates differential thermal gradients throughout the material being deposited. To prevent thermally created interaction with the copper hearth and insure uniform distribution of heat within the source material, it is often beneficial to utilize a hearth liner during electron beam deposition. These liners can be fabricated in all shapes and sizes to fit all commercially available electron beam sources. The composition of the liner is carefully matched to the material being deposited to minimize thermally created chemical interaction and maximize the thermal stability of the evaporation process. Visit our Materials Listing for a list of electron beam hearth liner material compositions, or contact us for further assistance. For more information on which crucible liner to use, please refer to the Thin Film Evaporation Material Source Reference.
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