Sputtering Target Material Selection: Why Titanium Tungsten Targets Shine

Introduction

In the world of thin film deposition, the choice of sputtering target material is crucial. The material you select can significantly impact the quality, performance, and durability of the thin film you're depositing. Regarding specific applications that demand exceptional properties, titanium tungsten (TiW) sputtering targets shine as a top choice. In this article, we'll delve into why TiW targets are the preferred option for certain applications.

Understanding Sputtering Targets

Sputtering is a versatile and widely used thin film deposition technique. It involves bombarding a target material with high-energy ions in a vacuum chamber, causing atoms from the target to be ejected and deposited as a thin film on a substrate. The choice of target material is vital as it directly affects the film's properties, such as composition, thickness, and adhesion.

Why Titanium Tungsten Sputtering Targets?

Film Quality: Titanium tungsten is renowned for producing high-quality films. It offers excellent control over film thickness and composition, making it suitable for applications requiring precise and uniform films.

Adhesion: TiW sputtering targets ensure strong adhesion between the thin film and the substrate. This characteristic is particularly valuable in applications where there are other options than film delamination or peeling.

Chemical Inertness: Titanium tungsten is chemically inert, meaning it doesn't react with many substances. This makes it ideal for applications involving harsh chemical environments.

Temperature Stability: TiW sputtering targets can withstand high-temperature deposition processes, ensuring stability and integrity during film formation. This stability is crucial in various industries, including semiconductor manufacturing and aerospace.

Customizability: TiW sputtering targets are available in various compositions to meet specific application requirements. This customizability allows researchers and manufacturers to fine-tune the properties of the deposited films.

Applications of Titanium Tungsten Sputtering Targets

Now that we've discussed the exceptional properties of TiW targets let's explore where they shine:

Semiconductor Industry: In semiconductor manufacturing, TiW sputtering targets play a pivotal role in depositing thin films for integrated circuits (ICs) and microelectronics. The ability to precisely control film thickness and composition is critical to ensure the performance and reliability of these electronic components.

Optical Coatings: Titanium tungsten is widely used in optical coatings. Whether it's anti-reflective coatings for lenses, mirrors, or optical filters, TiW targets help create films that enhance optical performance.

Aerospace Applications: The aerospace industry relies on TiW sputtering targets for thermal barrier coatings and protective layers. These films help safeguard critical components in extreme conditions, such as those found in jet engines and aerospace structures.

MEMS Devices: Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) require precise and durable thin films. Titanium tungsten targets are the material of choice for producing these microcomponents found in sensors, accelerometers, and microactuators.

Conclusion

When it comes to thin film deposition, the choice of sputtering target material can make or break your application. For those demanding precise film quality, exceptional adhesion, chemical inertness, temperature stability, and customizability, titanium tungsten sputtering targets emerge as the shining star. Their significance in the semiconductor, optical, aerospace, and MEMS industries is a testament to their exceptional properties. In the quest for high-quality, reliable thin films, TiW targets are a top-tier choice. For more information, please visit https://www.sputtertargets.net/.

Rotatable Sputtering Target in Large Area and Glass Coating

In recent years, more and more large area and glass coating manufacturing, especially web coatings and architectural glass and flat panel displays, have changed to rotatable sputtering target technologies.

Rotatable targets have significant advantages over planar targets.

• There are more types of target materials that can be made into rotatable sputtering targets than planar targets.
• Rotatable targets have greater target material utilization. This can increase production time and reduce production and system downtime. A significant benefit is that it increases the production of production and coating equipment.
• Rotatable sputtering targets generally allow for the use of higher power densities because the accumulation of heat is evenly spread over the surface area of the target. This improves deposition rate and improves performance during most reactive sputtering processes and runs.
• Rotary targets can be custom-made for use in monolithic, segmented or thermal spray applications.

Nowadays, rotatable target technology has been widely used in large-area coating manufacturing of architectural glass, flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic and decorative coating. They are very friendly to the decorative film which ensures scratch resistance and decorative colorful finishes of a hard coating on mobile phones, jewelry, watches, eyewear, automotive decoration, domestic appliances, sanitary wares, hardware, etc.

It is mainly applied in the following industry:

Large Area Glass Coating

Display Industry

Wear Resistant Coating

Optical Coating

Semi-conductive, Micro-electronics

In large-area coating, the shape design of the target mainly affects the utilization of the target, and the reasonable size design can improve the utilization of the target. In addition to the shape of the target, the smaller the grain size, the faster the rate of coating is, and the better the uniformity of the film is. The higher the purity and the density, the less the porosity is, the better the film formation quality is, and the lower the probability of discharging the slag is. In general, the quality of the target has a significant impact on the quality of the film. 

For high quality rotary sputter target, please visit https://www.sputtertargets.net/.

Research on carbon dioxide storage technology: part of a global climate change mitigation strategy

Climate change is undoubtedly the biggest technological challenge facing mankind in the

next decade. Mitigating climate change is not an easy task. It involves various technological

advancements, from reducing carbon emissions to sequestering existing atmospheric carbon.

At present, a large amount of researches in the field of climate change focus on generating energy without carbon emission, which is undoubtedly a difficult task-more than 50% of the earth's energy supply still comes from fossil fuels. I think it is more important to store the carbon we have already emitted and the carbon we will certainly emit in the next ten years. Why? On one hand, there is already a clear solution for low-carbon energy production: Wind energy and solar energy are mature technologies, and nuclear energy can be promoted on a large scale. On the other hand, carbon dioxide storage technology is still in its infancy and requires more research. More importantly, even if we stop emitting carbon tomorrow, we still emit so much carbon into the atmosphere that our climate will change significantly in the next few centuries.

For these reasons, I think our research on climate warming should focus on the storage of carbon dioxide. Studying seawater electrolysis as a storage of billions of tons of carbon may become a means to help our climate return to the stability of the pre-industrial era.

What needs to be believed is that the ocean may store all our carbon emissions. For millions of years, marine organisms have been absorbing carbon dioxide dissolved in water to make calcium carbonate shells. [1] Unfortunately, as humans have emitted more and more carbon dioxide, and more of that

carbon dioxide has been absorbed into the ocean, this reaction is in jeopardy.

Chemically speaking, carbon dioxide is a Lewis Acid — greater amounts of dissolved CO2 have lowered the pH of the ocean. As the pH decreases, the solubility of calcium carbonate increases. The carbon dioxide stored in them is released and the ability of the ocean to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide is reduced. Chemically speaking, carbon dioxide is a Lewis Acid — greater amounts of dissolved CO2 have lowered the pH of the ocean. As the pH decreases, the solubility of calcium carbonate increases. The carbon dioxide stored in them is released and the ability of the ocean to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide is reduced. In other words, what is needed is a way to increase the pH of the ocean as well as its ability to dissolved CO2.

At first glance, that might seem like an impossible task, because the oceans are enormous. However, there is a way to accomplish this feat. However, there is a way to achieve this idea-electrolysis. Passing an electric current through the brine produces hydrogen gas at the cathode and chlorine gas at the anode. [2] The use of special advanced electrodes can generate oxygen instead of chlorine at the anode. [3] Sodium hydroxide formed by hydrogen and oxygen is the most important product of this reaction. Releasing sodium hydroxide into the ocean would reduce ocean acidification, allowing the ocean to absorb significantly more carbon dioxide. As pH increased further, marine organisms would no longer be needed—calcium ions in the ocean would react with hydroxide produced in this process and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to form insoluble calcium hydrogen carbonate. This solid would settle to the bottom of the ocean, effectively sequestering the carbon dioxide it contains for centuries or longer.

2CO2 + Ca2+ + 2OH-1 → Ca(HCO3)2 (s)

There is, of course, a catch: the scale of this operation would be absolutely massive.

Humans have emitted more than 440 petagrams of carbon into the atmosphere since 1850.

[4] At around 12 grams per mole, we would need to absorb about 37 petamoles of two moles

of carbon dioxideatmospheric carbon. Since it takes two moles of hydroxide to absorb two moles of carbon

dioxide and it takes two moles of electrons to create two moles of hydroxide ions:

2H2O + 2e- → H2 + 2OH-

it will take one nearly 37 petamoles of electrons to sequester all of the atmospheric carbon in

our atmosphere. A mole of electrons is about 96,485 C, giving us a total of 3.57 x 1021 Coulombs of charge.  If we give ourselves exactly one decade to absorb all of this carbon,

we would need:

3.57 x 1021 C	= 1.14 x 1013 Amperes
3.154 x 108 s

Electrical power can be calculated as the product of current and voltage. An optimal solar

system produces around 33 volts6. Using this fact, we can estimate the total amount of power needed:

P = 1.14 x 1013A • 33V = 3.76 x 1014 W

The output of typical power plants might be in the range of 2 x 108 to 1 x 109 W — roughly one hundred thousand such power plants would be needed to sequester all

of the atmospheric carbon dioxide we have emitted since the industrial revolution. And, of

course, none of these power plants could use fossil fuels.

I think this approach can be part of a global climate change mitigation strategy. Today, wind turbines and solar panels usually generate more electricity than needed. This extra, surplus electricity can be sent to ocean electrolysis stations, where it can be used to store carbon. Adding additional solar and wind energy can expand carbon dioxide storage projects. This is a daunting task, but this method can provide a real way to isolate billions of tons of atmospheric carbon.

Works Cited

1 - https://www.whoi.edu/multimedia/carbon-dioxide-shell-building-and-ocean-acidification/

2 - https://aquarius.nasa.gov/pdfs/electrolysis.pdf

3 - https://www.pnas.org/content/116/14/6624

4 - https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide

Study on Preparation Process of High Purity Copper Sputter Target for Sputtering

The high-purity copper sputtering target is one of the largest metal target products in the electronics industry. The microstructure of the copper sputtering target has an important effect on the quality of the sputtered thin film.

Sputtering is one of the main technologies for preparing thin-film materials. It uses ions generated by an ion source to accelerate the concentration in a vacuum to form a high-speed energy ion beam, which bombards the solid surface and exchanges kinetic energy between ions and solid surface atoms. The bombarded solid material is the raw material for depositing thin films by sputtering, which is called sputtering target. The thin films deposited by target sputtering have the characteristics of high density and good adhesion. With the rapid development of new devices and materials in the microelectronics industry, as well as applications in the high-tech and industrial fields such as electronics, magnetics, optics, and superconducting thin films, the size of the sputtering target market has been expanding. Currently, the world's targets are mainly produced by the United States, Germany, and Japan.

As a substrate for back-sputtering, in order to obtain a uniform film deposition rate, the requirements for sputtering copper targets mainly include uniform composition and microstructure, and fine grain size. High-purity metal is an important raw material for the preparation of targets. The purity of the metal is the key to the preparation of qualified targets and the function of target sputtering films. The higher the purity of the metal is, the better the uniformity of the film after sputtering is. Usually, the purity of the metal used to prepare the target must be 4N and above.

At present, the methods for preparing target materials mainly include casting method and powder metallurgy method. The casting method uses the methods of vacuum induction melting, vacuum electric melting, and vacuum electron bombarding to perform ingot smelting and casting, and finally machining the target material. The casting method can produce targets with low impurity content, high density, and large size, but it is not suitable for producing two or more metals with large differences in melting point and density. The alloy target produced by the ordinary melting method has a large composition. The powder metallurgy method uses cold pressing, vacuum hot pressing and hot isostatic pressing to smelt a certain proportion of the alloy powder raw material, cast it into an ingot, and pulverize it. After high temperature sintering, the target material is finally formed. The powder metallurgy method restrains the alloy target with uniform composition. However, targets made in this way usually have the disadvantages of low density and high impurity content.

For more information, please visit https://www.sputtertargets.net/.

Tantalum Sputtering Target for Titanium Dental Implant Surface Coating

Titanium (Ti) dental implants have an excellent biocompatibility and load-bearing mechanical properties and thus occupy the vast majority of commercial implant markets. However, due to the impaired host defense and antibacterial properties of titanium, even after thorough disinfection, it is susceptible to bacterial infection, which will impair osseointegration and even cause the implant to fall off. Therefore, the practical application of Ti implants requires improved antimicrobial activity.

The tantalum sputtering target is considered a promising metal material for biomedical implants or coatings for dental, orthopedic and arthroplasty because of its superior corrosion resistance, radiopacity, and biology compatibility, osteogenic and antibacterial activity. A Ta-based coating comprising TaO and TaN has an antibacterial effect on oral pathogens in artificial saliva. Magnetron sputtering implants a tantalum sputter target into the Ti implant to form a Ta2O5 coating with a micro/nano layered structure on Ti, which greatly enhances the in vitro osteogenic activity of the Ti implant. 

However, although ruthenium (Ta)-based coatings have proven to have good antibacterial activity, their basic mechanisms and in vivo biological properties have not been known, which is critical for the clinical application of Ta-coated biomaterials as dental implants.

BackGrounds:

Although tantalum (Ta)-based coatings have been proven to have good antibacterial activity, the underlying mechanism and in vivo biological performance remain unclear, which are essential for the clinical application of Ta-coated biomaterials as dental implants.

Purpose: 

The main objective of this study is to investigate the antibacterial activity of Ta-modified titanium (Ti) implants against peri-implantitis-related microbes and the potential molecular mechanisms.

Methods: 

Fusobacterium nucleatum and Porphyromonas gingivalis were selected to evaluate the antibacterial activity and potential antibacterial mechanism of Ta modification. The in vivo biocompatibility of Ta-modified implants was also evaluated.

Results: 

The results showed that Ta-modified surface performed excellent antimicrobial activity against Fusobacterium nucleatum and Porphyromonas gingivalis. Micro galvanic might be formed between the incorporated Ta and the Ti base, which could consume the protons and result in decreased ATP synthesis and increased ROS generation. The gene expression of bacterial virulence factors associated with cellular attachment, invasion and viability as the target of ROS was downregulated. Importantly, in vivo biological studies showed that Ta modification significantly promoted the osseointegration of implants by stimulating the expression of bone-forming proteins.

Conclusion: 

This study may provide some insights into clinical applications of Ta-coated Ti implants, especially in possibly infected situations.

For more information, please visit https://www.sputtertargets.net/. 

How to Recycle Pure Gold from Gold Sputtering Target?

Gold sputtering targets are widely used in decorative coatings such as jewelry and watches. Gold is a bright, slightly reddish yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, which means gold is a very stable metal. As one of the precious metals, gold itself is extremely valuable. In order to save the coating cost, gold target recycling is an important part of gold coating.

Sputtering targets, especially planar sputtering targets, have a low utilization rate, so there are many unused portions after sputtering is completed. Therefore, target recycling is necessary for the precious pepper targets. As the picture below shows, there is more to a gold sputtering target than just the target material. Even when most of the target material has been removed after the target has been used repeatedly, you still have quantities of other metals in the two surfaces below.

The bonding material–Depending on how the target is made, even if the life of the target has passed, many valuable metals can be found in the layer. The thin layer typically comprises silver - as a silver solder, as a component or other form of a silver-containing epoxy resin. Of course, silver is not the most precious of precious metals, but if you have a lot of used sputtering targets, you may get a lot of money from silver recycling.

The backing plate –They are usually made of aluminum, copper, stainless steel or even molybdenum. However, in some cases they may also contain precious metals such as palladium or cadmium. During the sputtering process, a small amount of gold may also be plated on the exposed areas of the backsheet - and of course you don't want to throw it away.

If you have used sputter targets that have not been discarded - especially if they are gold targets - please contact us to assess their value. We also provide target reclaim services. Please visit https://www.sputtertargets.net/ for more information.

Five Sputtering Deposition Power Supplies

Sputter deposition is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method of thin film deposition by sputtering. This involves spraying material from a "sputter target" as a source onto a "substrate" such as a silicon wafer.

There are mainly five sputtering powder suppliers, as listed below.

Direct Current (DC) Sputtering Power

DC Power is generally used with electrically conductive sputtering materials. It is easy to control and a low-cost option.

Radio Frequency (RF) Sputtering Power

RF Power can be used with all materials, but generally finds most use in depositing films from dielectric target materials. The deposition rate (driven by the relative duty cycle), when compared to DC, is generally quite low and the electron flux (due to the mobility difference of electrons and ions in a plasma) on the substrate is much higher and may cause significant heating. Due to the major cost considerations of RF power supplies, RF deposition is generally limited to smaller substrate sizes.

Pulsed DC Sputtering Power

Pulsed DC (variable frequency) has found broad application in reactive sputtering applications where a positive voltage spike, induced at some frequency on the power waveform can be used to clean the target face and eliminate the buildup of a thick dielectric layer which can be prone to arcing. Frequency ranges from 40 to 200 KHz are typically used. This approach is commonly referred to as unipolar pulsed sputtering. Another option known as bipolar pulsed sputtering uses two pulses, 180 degrees out of phase, that is applied to two adjacent magnetrons in which each magnetron alternates as both a cathode and anode, mitigating the effects of dielectric build-up and greatly reducing the disappearing anode effect. This technique has also found wide industrial use.

Mid-Frequency AC Sputtering Power

MF Sputtering is typically used to deposit non-conductive materials. Two cathodes in a dual configuration are used and the AC current is switched between each cathode allowing the target surface to be cleaned with each reverse of the cycle. This reduces arcing by charge build-up and eliminates the need for anode cleaning which provides long term process stability. MF sputtering is widely used in many inline production systems today.

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS)

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering is a emerging process which uses a high current pulse to greatly increase the ionization of the sputtering material. These ionized atoms have much higher energies than sputtered atoms in conventional magnetron sputtering and have been found to yield very dense and stable films.
For more information, please visit https://www.sputtertargets.net/.