Angular-resolved energy flux measurements of a dc- and HIPIMS-powered rotating cylindrical magnetron in reactive and non-reactive atmosphere

Abstract

A rotating cylindrical magnetron equipped with a titanium target was sputtered in dc and in HIPIMS mode, both in metallic and in the oxide regime. For all sputter modes, the same process conditions and the same average sputtering power of 300 W were used. An angular-resolved study was performed, 90° around the rotating cylindrical magnetron, which obtained the total energy flux arriving at the substrate. Furthermore, the energy flux per adparticle was calculated by measuring the deposition rate for all sputter modes and regimes. There is only a small difference in total arriving energy flux between the dc mode and the HIPIMS mode. A maximum arriving energy flux of ca 0.26 mW cm-2 was measured, when normalized to the sputtering power. Concerning the deposition rate, up to a 75% decrease was found from dc to HIPIMS mode. Furthermore, the emission and the transport of the particles have a similar angular profile for all sputter modes. Among the HIPIMS modes, a decrease in deposition rate was measured with increasing pulse length. Therefore, the energy which arrives per adparticle is the highest for the HIPIMS modes. A difference in the angular shape of the energy per arriving adparticle is noticed between the dc and the HIPIMS modes. The dc mode has a maximum arriving energy per adparticle at around 50°, while this is at 60° for the HIPIMS mode. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.