MAGNETIC-FIELDS IN MAGNETRON SPUTTERING SYSTEMS

Recently, a computer-aided-design package has been used to describe the magnetic field in front of a planar magnetron system [1]. Such techniques yield excellent results and are very flexible. Disadvantages are that the results are purely numerical, it takes time and some expertise to properly utilise this kind of software and commercial packages can be very expensive. Analytic expressions for the field in front of a planar magnetron should more easily facilitate theoretical analysis of magnetron operation. They would also be useful to the thin film researcher faced with designing a magnetron system- The methods presented here apply to circular and rectangular magnet geometries, but have much broader applicability. The results are easily extended to multiple magnetron configurations. There are limitations on the materials which can be used and on the magnetic geometry, but these are not unduly restrictive.