Tosoh Corporation

Ryoji Yoshimura

Nobuhiro Ogawa

Kazuaki Yamamoto

Kimitaka Kuma

Kentaro Utsumi

Takashi Mouri

Yasufumi Tsubakihara

Chikara Uema

The surface to be sputtered of a sputtering target is blasted with a blasting material in the form of a finely divided powder having particle diameters falling within the range of 10 to 500 .mu.m to remove impurities staining the surface to be sputtered. This blasting treatment is suitable especially for a sputtering surface having a raised portion thereon. Preferably the blasting treatment is effected in two stages: in the first stage, a blasting material powder with particle diameters of 50 to 500 .mu.m is used and, in the second stage, a blasting material powder with particle diameters of 10 to 110 .mu.m is used. The blast-treated surface has a uniform, isotropic and reduced surface roughness.

Process for producing sputtering target

An ITO sintered body according to the present invention has a density thereof of between 90 and 100% and a sintering particle size of between 1 and 20 .mu.m. A proportion of (In.sub.0.6 Sn.sub.0.4).sub.2 O.sub.3 in the ITO sintered body is 10% or below. Such an ITO sintered body is manufactured by mixing an indium oxide powder, whose BET surface area is between 15 and 30 m.sup.2 /g, a BET size/a crystallite size is 2 or below, and an average primary particle size is between 0.03 and 0.1 .mu.m, with tin oxide whose BET surface area is 3 m.sup.2 /g or below, and then by sintering the mixture.

Ito sintered body and method of manufacturing the same

Growing community of inventors

Yamagata, Japan

Ryoji Yoshimura