Enhancements of Substrate Deposition Rate and Target Erosion Profile in a DC Magnetron Sputtering System

The dc magnetron sputtering system (MSS) is widely used in the microelectronic industries for thin film depositions. With certain designs, users have observed low operational performance and high target material consumption rates due to unsatisfactory interactions between electrons or ions and fields inside the sputter. This paper describes refinements that can be applied to commercial on-line dc MSS to control the magnetic field affecting the behavior of electrons inside the sputter. Results from a study showed that the proposed refinements can increase the sputtering efficiency by as much as 39.40%, and a corresponding enhancement of the substrate deposition rate is also to be expected. In addition, compared to that obtained without the refinements, the target erosion profiles with the refinements are more evenly spread out, reduction in the target material consumptions can also be expected.