Sputter deposition is a technology for the surface treatment of substrates. The technique is based on ion bombardment of a target, resulting in a vapor. One of the most common approaches for growing thin films by sputter deposition is the use of a magnetron source, in which positive ions present in the plasma. Well known as direct current (DC sputtering) for conductive targets and radio frequency (RF sputtering) for nonconductive targets. Magnetron sputtering in diverse modes like DC, pulsed DC, bipolar and RF is available on the market.
Due to its versatility and the possibility to apply it on a large scale at low costs, sputter deposition or sputtering is widely used in research and industry. Different sputter variations are used in application fields like high-end multilayer systems for thermal insulation, hard coatings and self cleaning windows, transparent electrodes for photovoltaics and display industry, or functional films in microelectronics.
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES and sputtering
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES has delivered in excess of 8,000 vacuum sputtering machines worldwide over the past 20 years. The machines range from standard sputtering systems to ultra-high vacuum deposition machines, applying extremely thin layers. Importantly they have capabilities down to 0.2 nm for the semiconductor industry as well as data storage, decorative coatings and solar cell production.
Based on this experience, these systems offer high throughput and a high uptime of the machines. In-house cathode design, including magnetron development and the simulation of the different sputtering processes, are done with sputtering in-house lab equipment. A close cooperation with scientific institutes such as Fraunhofer, Inplas, Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM), University of Konstanz as well as organizations in USA, China and Singapore assure access to the latest R&D results.
The range of products include systems for vertical and horizontal substrate orientation starting from small 3-dimensional parts to large glass surfaces. SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES is a renowned manufacturer of advanced thin-film deposition equipment. It is the trusted partner in the respective industry and extends its leadership in the thin-film deposition technology for these applications.
