Performance of Sputtering Targets and Productivity

Sarkar, Jayati

doi:10.1016/b978-0-8155-1593-7.00003-5

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…We also observe that specimens with finer grains have higher microhardness. As stated by Dunlop et al [51] and Sarkar et al [52], the performance of the sputtering target during the PVD process is in correlation with the averaged grain size of the sputtering target. Their works showed that the surface uniformity of the deposited thin film has an inverse correlation with the average grain size of the sputtering target.…”

Section: Comparison Of Specimens Produced By L-pbf With Vht and Hp Wi...mentioning

confidence: 90%

Effect of Vacuum Heat Treatment on the Microstructure of a Laser Powder-Bed Fusion-Fabricated NiTa Alloy

Bussmann

Chattopadhyay

2022

Metals

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The semiconductor industry uses a physical vapor-deposition process, with a nickel-tantalum (NiTa) alloy-sputtering target, to apply an amorphous NiTa thin film layer between the magnetic soft underlayer and substrate of a heat-assisted magnetic-recording hard disk drive. Currently, the alloy-sputtering target is produced through a hot-pressing (HP) process followed by a hot isostatic pressing (HIP). In this study, we demonstrate a better process for producing the sputtering targets, using laser powder-bed fusion (L-PBF) followed by vacuum heat treatment (VHT), to produce alloy targets with superior microstructural characteristics that will produce better-quality thin films. We compare as-fabricated (just L-PBF) specimens with specimens produced by L-PBF and then annealed at different conditions. Where the as-fabricated specimens are characterized by columnar dendrites, annealing at 1275 °C for 4 h produces a uniform equiaxed grain microstructure and a uniformly dispersed fcc Ta precipitate. In addition, the average microhardness value is reduced from 725 ± 40 to 594 ± 26 HV0.2 and the maximum compressive residual stress is reduced from 180 ± 50 MPa to 20 ± 10 MPa as the result of dislocation elimination during the recovery and recrystallization process. Finally, due to microstructure recrystallization, the VHT-treated L-PBF NiTa specimens exhibit a smaller grain size (2.1 ± 0.2 µm) than the traditional HIP-treated HP specimens (6.0 ± 0.6 µm).

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Section: Comparison Of Specimens Produced By L-pbf With Vht and Hp Wi...mentioning

confidence: 90%