High rate deposition of insulating TiO2 and conducting ITO films for optical and display applications

Proof An innovative reactive pulse magnetron sputtering (PMS-) system allowing to change the pulse mode (unipolar, bipolar or 22 pulse packet) and the pulse parameters (duty cycle, frequency) of the discharge has been used to deposit different materials at 23 high deposition rates. The new pulse packet mode combines the two fundamental pulse modes of unipolar and bipolar by applying 24 packets of unidirectional pulses between the two targets and changing the polarity of the discharge after each packet. As a new 25 pulse parameter, the number of pulses of each packet can be varied. The advantages of the PMS-system were demonst rated by 26 the reactive deposition of insulating titanium oxide (TiO ) and conducting indium tin oxide (ITO) films. The TiO layers sputtered 2 2 27 on unheated substrates at deposition rates of up to 50 nm mymin exhibited amorphous, mixed anataseyrutile or rutile structure in 28 dependence of the pulse mode and the pulse parameters that were applied. Hardness, Youngs modulus, roughness and refractive 29 index varied in dependence of the structure of the layers. Although the sputtering from ceramic target is the most common coating 30 technique for ITO, another economical way is the use of metallic InSn-targets. The effect of various pulse modes on the optical 31 and electrical properties of reactivelys puttered ITO layers on float glass was investigated. The specific resistivity of ITO was 32 minimized by process parameter optimisation.