by padmin | Nov 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
A while back (January 2016) we discussed a brief but fundamental description of what the basic processes are associated with the production of elemental and metal alloy sputtering targets. At that time we promised to address the analogous process of how ceramic, or...
by padmin | Oct 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
What Is Metallic Bonding? There are many reasons for bonding a sputtering target to an associated backing plate. In essence, all of these reasons basically relate to the physical properties associated with the composition of the sputtering target under consideration...
by padmin | Sep 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
Back in July I talked a bit about the sputtering of metallic alloys, or composite materials, and the relationship between the starting material compositions and that of the resultant films. Here I would like to do a follow up piece and discuss an alternative method of...
by padmin | Aug 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
A good portion of our customer base here at Plasmaterials, Inc. are scientists, engineers, educators or people working in some form of research and development, be it either in academia or industrial oriented. Such customers are more often concerned with material...
by padmin | Jul 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
What Is Sputtering of Alloys? Thin film alloys or composites of various compositions can be deposited via Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) processing in a variety of different ways. Probably the most common practice is to simply sputter the alloy or composite material...
by padmin | Jun 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
What Are Thin Film Solar Cells? This year has been busy so far visiting customers and attending a number of Trade Shows around the world and to my surprise, albeit based on a limited number of direct conversations with various technical personnel associated with a...
by padmin | May 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
Recently we received an enquiry as to the reason behind the changes in deposition rate during the life of a Sputtering Target. Negatively charged electrons in the plasma are repelled by the negatively charged current applied to the sputtering target surface (like...
by padmin | Apr 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
Metal oxide films can be sputtered from either an elemental metallic (M) target or from a metal oxide (MOx) target. However, as one might expect, the deposition parameters are significantly different depending on the starting material composition. However, it is...
by padmin | Mar 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
I really think that we have beaten this issue to death however, almost weekly, we get a customer request asking us to explain how best to condition or “Break In” a new sputtering target and what is the maximum power level that they could apply to it....
by padmin | Feb 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
There is still a bit of “Magic” associated with sputtering, but how the resultant films comprise the same compositional homogeneity as the starting target composition for a given alloy or composite material is not one of them. True, each individual element...
