Suppression of substrate temperature in DC magnetron sputtering deposition by magnetic mirror-type magnetron cathode
Taisei Motomura, Kenshin Takemura, Toshimi Nagase, Nobutomo Morita, Tatsuo Tabaru
Abstract
Magnetron sputtering generally increases the temperature of the substrate placed to face the sputtering target above 40 °C because the plasmas are transported through unbalanced magnetic field lines from the sputtering target to the substrate surface. However, by using a magnetic mirror-type magnetron cathode, we were able to suppress the temperature of the substrate temperature to the environmental temperature of less than 40 °C at a target–substrate distance of ≥50 mm with a DC input power of ≤30 W and an Ar gas pressure of ≤0.15 Pa. This was possible because the balanced magnetic field lines confined the plasmas near the sputtering target. By enabling film deposition on low heat-resistant substrates, this deposition technique for suppressing the substrate temperature may have uses in various application fields.