Investigation of the magnetron balancing effect on the ionized flux fraction and deposition rate of sputtered titanium species for the high-power impulse magnetron sputtering pulses of different lengths

The study is focused on the impact of different magnetic field configurations of a high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) in a nonreactive mode on the film precursors. Ionized flux fraction and total flux deposited onto the substrate were measured with the magnetic quartz crystal microbalance probe placed in front of the target racetrack. Particularly, we investigated the degree of magnetron balancing and the geometry of the magnetic field above the Ti target surface (4 in. diameter), as crucial factors influencing the thin film deposition, for different HiPIMS pulse lengths. Three unbalanced (II type) magnetron configurations have been chosen for this study: two symmetric geometries—with a regular magnetic field (B parallel to the target about 80 and 35 mT) and one asymmetric (highly unbalanced) magnetron configuration with an intermediate magnetic field (B parallel to the target about 48 mT). The HiPIMS was operated keeping constant the peak current at 43 A for C0-E0 and C10-E0 B-field configurations and a lower value, 33 A, when operating in C10-E10 configuration. In addition to the peak current, the pulse frequency was kept constant at 100 Hz but the pulse length (power on-time, Ton) was varied from 50 up to 100 μs. Obviously, the pulse power and the average power continuously increase with the length of the pulse. The results reveal a significant difference in the trends of the deposition rate and ionized flux fraction reaching the substrate with respect to the degree of balancing of the magnetron. It was found that the ionized fraction of metal arriving at the substrate reaches its maximum for the pulse length between Ton ≈ 70–80 μs in both symmetric cases, with strong and weak magnetic fields. The ionized fraction of Ti atoms in the asymmetric configuration increased in all measured range with the pulse length and the growth rate has a smooth increase.