| 摘要 |
The present invention is directed toward reducing catastrophic sparking in various sputtering processes, and especially reactive DC magnetron sputtering processes. Nonsparking sputtering targets and methods for making such targets having regions of sputtering and nonsputtering are disclosed in both planar and cylindrical forms wherein various means for electrically insulating the nonsputtered regions of the target from the sputtering gas plasma are provided. The means for insulating includes covering the regions of nonsputtering with an electrically insulating material. Corresponding methods of eliminating or substantially reducing such sparking are disclosed whereby various nonsparking planar and cylindrical targets are utilized in conventional DC magnetron reactive sputtering processes. Alternately, or in combination with particular nonsparking targets, the present invention includes alterations to the sputtering chamber to alleviate such sparking. Furthermore, the present invention is also directed toward DC reactive magnetron sputtering of either a planar or a rotatable, cylindrical target containing silicon, wherein the target is sputtered in an atmosphere containing oxygen.
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