Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films ISTFlexible deposition of magnetic materials with attractive coating rates
For the reliable production of smooth and compact layers, all sputtering processes are generally suitable. Particularly for magnetic materials, however, the widely used magnetron sputtering can only be deployed to a very limited extent, as these materials invalidate the functional principle of the magnetron. Hollow-cathode gas-flow sputtering, in contrast, is highly suitable for the deposition of magnetic materials. As a magnetic-field-free high-rate sputtering process, it can also be utilized to economically produce layer thicknesses of several tens of micrometers.
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Hollow-cathode technology has been developed at the Fraunhofer IST over decades and in various applications, thereby being advanced to market maturity in some cases. Gas-flow sputtering is the method of choice when it comes to the economical deposition of magnetic layers with thicknesses in the range of up to several tens of micrometers.