Investigation of industrially-suited processes for deposition of oxide thin films by high power impulse magnetron sputtering

The scope of this work is to investigate and to develop advanced HIPIMS processes for deposition of oxides, utilizing industrial-scale equipment and technology. Two classes of oxide materials were studied: insulating (aluminum oxide) and conducting oxides (indium-tin oxide and aluminum-doped zinc oxide). The electrical properties of the oxides have a significant influence on the process design, as the issues and approaches for deposition of insulating materials are fairly different from conducting materials. Different types of reactive process control were also investigated, utilizing optical emission spectroscopy to control the oxygen flow and lambda probes to control the discharge power. A non-reactive process was also studied for indium-tin oxide.