Arutiun P. Ehiasarian¹, Ralf Bandorf^2
1Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom
²Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, Braunschweig, Germany
January 2004 saw the commissioning of the first High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering generator which could operate production-scale equipment and, crucially, was commercially available. It was a joint effort between Sheffield Hallam University (UK) and Advanced Converters (PL) (now Trumpf Hüttinger Poland). It was a milestone that enabled the widespread use of the technology and instigated growth in scientific research and industrial uptake. The ensuing proliferation of researchers, end-users and suppliers of generators, cathodes and deposition systems has formed a thriving international community of HIPIMS users.
Pulsing the power delivery to conventional magnetron sputtering cathodes enables a 100-fold rise in peak power densities to several kW cm^-2 at current densities in the range of a few 100 mA cm^-2 up to a few A cm^-2. The resulting high plasma density in the magnetron’s racetrack means that the film-forming species are predominantly provided as ionized rather than neutral material, leading to marked improvements in the density and performance of the deposited films. The development followed the first detailed scientific reports on plasma characterisation, film microstructure and coating performance by the team at Sheffield Hallam University and research by Dr. V. Kouznetsov and the team of Prof Khodachenko in the former Soviet Union.
This talk will start with a brief motivation on the use of magnetron sputtering and the basics of high-power impulse magnetron sputtering. A range of operation modes will be presented in both pure metallic and reactive processes. HIPIMS expands the operation window and enhances film properties. In contrast to the metallic mode of operation, reactive HIPIMS matches and even exceeds the deposition rate of conventional sputtering technique. Recently active monitoring and control has improved significantly and has been implemented on industrial scale. Finally, examples of solutions close to production and in everyday use will be presented.