Sputter target, method and apparatus for manufacturing sputter targets

摘要

A sputter target (12) as well as a method and an apparatus (10) for manufacturing such kind of a sputter target (12) is described, wherein the sputter target (12) for use as a material source in a sputtering process comprises a mainly tubular or cylindrical carrier (22) for supporting at least one layer, a target layer (32) manufactured by direct chill casting for providing sputter material (34) supported by the carrier (22), wherein in radial direction at least 80% of the grains of the sputter material (34) comprises gains having a diameter differing within a range ”d of ”d ‰¤ 40 µm, particularly ”d ‰¤ 30 µm, preferably ”d ‰¤ 20 µm and most preferred ”d ‰¤ 10 µm. Due to the direct chill casting method the sputter material (34) is very homogeneous both in radial direction and circumferential direction. This leads to improved sputter performance during the sputtering process and this for significantly increased target layer thicknesses (32).