CHEM02200704003 Nilamadhab Pandhy - Homi Bhabha National ...

Chapter 3
Fig. 3.2: Schematic of magnetron sputtering [62].
Trapping the electron in this way substantially increases the probability of an ionising electrontarget
atom collision. This in turn, leads to increased ion bombardment of the target giving higher
sputtering rates and therefore higher deposition rate at the substrate. The increased deposition rate
results in denser films at the substrate. Nevertheless, magnetron sputtering faces many challenges
such as poisoning effect of the sputtering target due to formation of compounds on the surface.
One more disadvantage of magnetron sputtering configuration is that plasma is confined near the
target and is not available to activate the reactive gas near the substrate. This disadvantage can be
overcome by an unbalanced magnetron configuration, where some electron can escape from the
target region towards substrate [63]. However, despite these drawbacks, it is one of the widely
used physical vapour deposition (PVD) techniques for thin film deposition, and researchers are
striving to overcome the shortcomings to bring the technology for wider industrial application.