The formation and control of direct current magnetron discharges for the high-rate reactive processing of thin films

Abstract

The process of reactive dc magnetron sputtering is shown to provide a high-rate, large-area deposition system when stability is achieved using optical emission spectroscopy to control the reactive gas flow. The film properties are improved when the isolated substrate is allowed to acquire a bias by immersion in a plasma directed onto it from the source. These techniques give good results at high rates of production without the complications of rf or ion beam systems. Results for oxide systems of indium and titanium are presented. Indium oxide films gave a resistivity of 4×10−6 Ω m and titanium oxide a refractive value of 2.55 at 633 nm when deposited onto room-temperature substrates.