ICMCTF2012 Session EX: Exhibition Keynote

The continuously increasing demand for a higher quality of life requires the fabrication of products with improved functionality at ever decreasing prices. Moreover, environmental awareness requires that these products are manufactured with so-called “clean“, technologies. These demands have led to a rapid technological progress within the thin film industry. Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) has been proven able to cope with these requirements, and within the PVD family, magnetron sputtering in all its varieties is probably the best known and most widely spread deposition technology. This success is mainly due to the thin film quality, reproducibility, and flexibility, as well as the scalability of the sputtering process. The concept of magnetron sputtering has been used under many different forms. Probably the best known implementation of magnetically assisted sputtering is to be found in the “classics“ such as in the planar magnetrons, either circular or rectangular. However, magnetically assisted sputtering is also used in many other forms such as inverted magnetrons, cylindrical-post magnetrons, cylindrical hollow cathode magnetrons, facing target magnetrons and rotatable cathode magnetrons. This last variety, the rotatable magnetron, is maybe the least known to the general public but most intensively used in large area coating applications like in web coating and glass coating. In this instance, we will focus on rotatable magnetrons, and their benefits and drawbacks, in addition to their peculiarities. For example, it turns out that in reactive sputtering their behavior is quite different in comparison to a rectangular magnetron of similar dimensions. Also, new trends in rotatable magnetron sputtering will be discussed from a technological point of view, as well as from the viewpoint of market demands.