Speaker
Description
The current-voltage characteristics used in DC sputtering are inadequate to describe high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). A comparative study of materials (Mg, Cu, Ti, Nb, Cr, V, Zn, Al,...) and material conditions for HiPIMS deposition under Ar, and Ar + O2 ambient is undertaken. A comparison is made in the voltage-current-time diagrams using a Melec sipp 2000 powerbank combined with a ADL dc powersuply in constant voltage mode. Conditions such as duty cycle, working gas pressure, and frequency are searched where the different target materials are operational under same pressure, and pulse conditions. This makes comparison between the different current-voltage-time diagrams possible. These voltage scans allow us to search a voltage at which a large amount of the different materials run stable under two pulse conditions: one where the on time is too short for rarefaction to occur and one where the on time is considerably longer allowing typical HiPIMS behavior such as rarefaction, and self sputtering to occur. We can now investigate the difference in amplitude of these current-time characteristics with only the target material related values as changing parameters.
