Aluminum Nitride (AlN) Sputtering Targets
Purity: 99.8% | Size: 3” | Thickness: 0.125”
Sputtering is a reliable technique for depositing thin films from a wide variety of materials onto diverse substrate shapes and sizes. Sputter targets allow repeatable and scalable deposition, suitable for both small research projects and larger production batches. Depending on process parameters, chemical reactions can occur on the target surface, in-flight, or on the substrate. The many variables in sputter deposition provide experts with precise control over film growth and microstructure.
Applications of Sputtering Targets
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Thin Film Deposition: Erodes material from a “target” onto a “substrate,” such as silicon wafers.
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Semiconductor Etching: Sputter etching is used when high anisotropy is required and selectivity is not critical.
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Material Analysis: Targets can be etched to determine composition. In secondary ion spectroscopy (SIMS), sputtered atoms are analyzed by mass spectrometry, detecting even trace impurities.
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Space Applications: Sputtering contributes to space weathering, altering the physical and chemical properties of airless bodies like asteroids and the Moon.
Aluminum nitride (AlN) is a chemical compound with excellent physical, chemical, and mechanical properties. High-quality AlN films are used in optical and optoelectronic devices due to their wide band gap (~6.2 eV), high refractive index (~2.0), and very low absorption coefficient (<10⁻³). Its thermal and chemical stability makes it suitable for harsh environments.
Deposition Methods
AlN films can be produced using pulsed laser deposition, reactive molecular beam epitaxy, vacuum/cathodic arc deposition, DC/RF reactive sputtering, ion beam sputtering, and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Magnetron sputtering is widely preferred for its simplicity, reproducibility, scalability, and cost efficiency.
Film properties depend on crystal structure, orientation, microstructure, and chemical composition, which are influenced by deposition conditions such as sputtering power, pulse frequency, duty cycle, growth temperature, nitrogen/argon flow ratio, and sputtering gas pressure. AlN sputtering targets perform effectively in reactive DC magnetron sputtering systems.
