Cold-spray manufacturing of Zn/ZnO nanocomposite targets for ZnO sputtering

The quality of sputtered thin films depends largely on the employed target's chemical, electrical, and microstructural characteristics. This paper explores the application of cold spraying (CS) in manufacturing dense, uniform, and high-performance sputtering targets for ZnO thin films. Zn/ZnO nanocomposite powders with 25, 50, and 75 wt-% ZnO were cold sprayed on Cu substrate. The samples were characterized with respect to their prime properties as well as their performance when used as targets to produce ZnO thin films. By increasing the amount of the nanoparticles in the target, the electrical resistivity and densification of the targets increased at the price of decreased deposition efficiency. Furthermore, the maximum sputtering rate and the most uniform thin film were obtained from the target containing 50 wt-% ZnO. The results confirm the viability of the CS method for manufacturing high-quality Zn/ZnO sputtering targets that can be directly deposited on backplates without additional adhesion treatments.