Remanufacturing of the waste refractory Mo–10Nb sputtering target by spark plasma sintering technology

Abstract

Mo–10Nb refractory sputtering targets used in the flat panel display industry have attracted extensive attention, whereas the shortcoming of low target utilization is now urgently needed to be solved. This work is to repair the waste Mo–10Nb target by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1550 °C and 10 min, and the feasibility is demonstrated. It is shown that the repaired target retains identical phases and high purity. Clean and strong bonds are found at the repair interface. Regardless of the position, the repaired target exhibits finer grains as well as higher density, microhardness, and thermal conductivity compared with the original target. The two targets are then sputtered to obtain relevant films. Both films consist of the same phases and show columnar appearances. Mo, Nb, O, and C are present in both films, where Mo and Nb exist in the form of pure Mo, MoO2, MoO3, pure Nb, and Nb2O5. A higher sputtering rate, smaller film thickness deviation, grain size and surface roughness, less oxidation, and larger elastic modulus and nano-hardness are obtained from the film prepared by the repaired target. SPS is proven to be a well-suited method for producing the regenerated target.