Gayatri Rane, Philipp Dürrenfeld, Uwe Krause, Advanced Energy Industries GmbH, Metzingen, Germany
Reactive sputtering of non-conductive oxides with high deposition rate, high transparency, and low stress while maintaining homogeneous stoichiometry over large areas has been a continual goal in the field of large area coatings leading to several advancements in the past years. In recent years, demand for coatings on heat sensitive substrates have led to further innovations in terms of equipment as well as process modifications. Pulsed DC (unipolar/bipolar) sputtering modes have been widely used for depositing highly insulating layers, allowing periodic discharging of target surface and reduction in arcing events. A more recent power configuration, the dynamic reverse pulsing (DRP) mode of sputtering using two synced bipolar pulsed DC power supplies, one per magnetron with a shared anode configuration, has been proposed to offer high throughput at low substrate temperature. In this paper, we present a case study on reactive sputter deposition of silicon oxide comparing different power configurations (pulsed DC and DRP) and their effects on the film properties and substrate temperature. Data obtained from two different types of industrial coaters, a Gen 2.0 in-line coater and a drum coater will be presented.