Some calculations for the thickness distribution of large-area high-temperature superconducting film deposited by inverted cylindrical sputtering

Abstract

The relative thickness distribution of large-area films deposited from an inverted cylindrical dc sputter gun with high gas pressure is calculated according to Feck’s diffusion law, based on a source-transformation method. The effects of the off-axis displacement rotation, tilted substrate rotation, and a biaxial rotation are compared. The calculated results show that homogeneous large-area films can be deposited with a small target-to-substrate distance by in-plane rotation with a 45° tilting angle or combined tilting together with an off-axis displacement. The biaxial rotation can be used to deposit also homogeneous large-area films. It is suitable for double-sided films. Some experiment data have been presented and show good consistence with the theoretical results. Both tilted in-plane rotation and biaxial rotation have the potential to deposit films with a high deposition rate and to increase the produce efficiency and the utilized ratio of the target. When deposited with these methods, the growth rate of the film would be higher than in the case of no tilting for the same requirement of the thickness homogeneity and meanwhile, the target life would be prolonged.