UNBALANCED MAGNETRONS AND NEW SPUTTERING SYSTEMS WITH ENHANCED PLASMA IONIZATION

This paper presents a critical review of the present status and trends in the sputtering of thin films. A special attention is devoted to the magnetron sputtering, especially to unbalanced magnetrons (UM) and to new sputtering devices utilizing magnetic and/or electric plasma confinement. The last category of devices opens new possibilities in a production of high quality films. Sputtering systems using UM operated in the double-site-sustained discharge and in a closed multipolar magnetic field are described. The attention is also devoted to the effects of ion bombardment on the properties of the deposited films. In case of hard TiN coatings it is shown under what conditions dense compact porousless films can be created and how deposition conditions can influence stresses in films. At the end, several new systems which combine advantages of sputtering with other processes like the arc evaporation, the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma, and the laser irradiation are also briefly described.