Fabrication and property evaluation of Al-1 wt.%Si0.5 wt.%Cu sputtering target materials by spark plasma sintering Process

Abstract

Al-Si-Cu alloy targets were fabricated using the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process for sputtering target applications. Powder for sintering of the Al-Si-Cu alloy compacts was prepared using the gas atomizing process. For fabricating the Al-SiCualloy compacts, optimized sintering conditions such as temperature, pulse ratio, pressure, and heating rate were controlledduring the sintering process. Al-Si-Cu alloy sputtering target materials after sintering using gas atomized powder were200 mm in diameter and 6.35 mm in thickness. In addition, the SPSed sputtering targets and thin films were compared withthose of a commercial target fabricated using the casting melting process. The sputtering targets materials having a relativedensity of 100% were fabricated under the uniaxial pressure range of 40 ~ 60 MPa at a sintering temperature of 400 oC. Grainsize of the SPSed target materials decreased with increasing of sintering pressure at the same temperature of 400 oC. Also, thepurity of the SPSed target materials was 99.992%. The properties of thin films deposited on a Si substrate using the SPSedtarget materials were compared with those of the commercial target material prepared using the casting melting process. Fromthe results, the specific resistivity of thin film deposited using the SPSed target material was 4.4 μΩm, which was a similarvalue (4.5 μΩm) to that of the commercial thin film.