Influence of Electronegative Gas on the Efficiency of Conventional and Hollow Cathode Magnetron Sputtering Systems

摘要

The aim of this work is to study the influence of electronegative gas (oxygen at different percentages) on the electrical characteristics of two configurations of magnetron sputtering systems, namely Hollow Cathode Magnetron Sputtering (HCMS) and Conventional Magnetron Sputtering (CMS). A comparison of the plasma impedances and magnetron efficiency of these two systems was carried out through the measurements of current-voltage (IxV) characteristics of the discharges operating at the same pressure and different oxygen percentage in O_2/Ar mixtures. The results showed distinct behavior of IxV characteristics of the sputtering systems, indicating that, in general, HCMS presents better electrical performance than CMS system, i.e., the former has lower plasma impedance and higher magnetron efficiency. For both cases the magnetron efficiency is improved as the percentage of oxygen in the gas discharge is increased. HCMS shows to be a very interesting technique to be used as deposition system in micro and nanoelectronic processes.