What is the common method and process flow of target material production and preparation

The target material is mainly composed of a target blank, a back plate, etc. Among them, the target blank is sputtered on the substrate to form various functional films by magnetron sputtering, multi-arc ion plating or other types of coating systems under appropriate process conditions. The sputtering source, that is, the target material bombarded by the high-speed ion beam, belongs to the core part of the sputtering target. During the sputtering coating process, after the target blank is hit by ions, its surface atoms are scattered by sputtering and deposited on the substrate. , to make electronic thin films; due to the low strength of high-purity metals, the sputtering target needs to be installed in a special machine to complete the sputtering process, and the inside of the machine is a high-voltage, high-vacuum environment. Therefore, the sputtering target blank of ultra-high-purity metal needs to be joined with the back plate through different welding processes. The back plate mainly plays the role of fixing the sputtering target and needs to have good electrical and thermal conductivity.

Material purification is the primary link in the target industry chain. For copper, nickel, silver, titanium and other metals, electrolytic refining (chemical purification method) is often used. The principle is to use impurity metals and main metals to precipitate on the cathode during the electrolysis process. Potential difference to achieve the purpose of purification. For gold, silver, copper, aluminum and other metals and their alloys, vacuum induction melting (physical purification method) is often used. The principle is to reduce the solubility of gas molecules in the metal under vacuum conditions to achieve purification. Xinkang provides targets with various purities including 3N, 4N, 5N, and 6N, and the finished products can be produced within 1 day, and the mass production can be customized within 1-2 weeks.

In addition to purification technology, preparation technology is also the core key. The target manufacturing process first needs to carry out unique process design according to the performance and requirements of the downstream application field, and then carry out repeated plastic deformation and heat treatment. Mechanical processing, cleaning and drying, vacuum packaging and other processes. At present, the methods of preparing targets mainly include casting method and powder metallurgy method. For refractory metals, smelting can also be used.

Casting method (vacuum induction smelting/vacuum electron bombardment smelting/vacuum arc): Alloy raw materials go through smelting, casting, mold, ingot, machining → target

Powder metallurgy (cold pressing, vacuum heating, hot isostatic pressing): Alloy raw materials pass through melting, casting, mould, ingot, powder, forming, high temperature, sintering → target material