>> We bought stainless steel (grade 316) sputter targets from Balzers
>> & Leyboldt Singapore. I'm sure they are available from their other
>> worldwide representatives as well.
>> With e-beam or other evaporation methods it is very difficult to
>> get consistent results for depositing alloys or compounds: Because
>> of different vapour pressures, one material evaporates first and
>> depletes from the target, resulting in film composition drift over
>> lifetime of the target.
>Doesn't the same thing happen with sputtering since the sputter rate of
>the different species (i.e. Fe/Cr/Ni) is not the same. This is a known
>problem for NiTi SMA and I would surprised if you don't have the same
>problem for stainless...
No, as long as your target material is at least a microcrystalline
mixture, not blocks of Fe, Cr and Ni and you don't heat it up to almost
melting temperature in the process ;-) all you do is roughening up the
surface.
The deposited film may have a different composition than the
taget due to the mass differences of sputtered atoms - different
scattering angles with the process gas. Depends on the chamber
config. and pressure, but in "usual" systems you loose the
lighter species.
klaus
--
(TEEL) Tokyo Electron Europe Limited
PVD Process Support (ex MRC)
Klaus Beschorner Tel +49-7033-45683
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