Praxair S.t. Technology, Inc.

Shailesh Kulkarni

Paul S Gilman

Holger J Koenigsmann

Alfred Snowman

Tony Sica

Raymond K F Lam

Jean Pierre Blanchet

The method is used to fabricate pure copper sputter targets. It includes first heating a copper billet to a temperature of at least 500&deg; C. The copper billet has a purity of at least 99.99 percent. Then warm working the copper billet applies at least 40 percent strain. Cold rolling the warm worked copper billet then applies at least 40 percent strain and forms a copper plate. Finally, annealing the copper plate at a temperature above about 250&deg; C. forms a target blank. The target blank has equiaxed grains having an average grain size of less than 40 &mgr;m. The grains of the target blank have (111), (200), (220) and (311) orientations with the amount of the grains having each of the orientations being less than 50 percent.

Fabrication and bonding of copper sputter targets

A method is provided for forming clad hollow cathode magnetron sputter targets that are lighter in weight and/or less expensive than monolithic targets. A plate of sputter target material is bonded to a sheet of cladding material that is lighter in weight and/or less expensive than the sputter target material. This clad target assembly is then formed into a hollow cathode magnetron sputter target, such as by deep drawing. The clad hollow cathode magnetron further provides greater percent utilization of sputter target material than monolithic targets.

Fabrication of clad hollow cathode magnetron sputter targets

There is provided a method of forming a high strength atomic bond between a sputter target and backing plate such that the microstructural characteristics of the sputter target material obtained by prior processing is not altered by the bonding process. There is further provided a method for bonding the target to the backing plate and forming a bonded target/backing plate assembly having a greater target thickness for increased sputtering life, while maintaining the overall standard dimensions set by industry standards.

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Milford, NJ, United States of America

Shailesh Kulkarni