Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Hollow or container type article – Polymer or resin containing
Patent
1996-03-22
1999-05-18
Thibodeau, Paul
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Hollow or container type article
Polymer or resin containing
428553, 428557, 428559, 428560, 428570, 428567, 428674, 428675, 428676, 428677, 419 49, 419 68, 20429813, 2042982, 20429819, 20429821, 20429812, 20429828, C23C14/00
Patent
active
059049669
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a laminated structure comprising at least three metallic (i.e. metal containing) layers bonded to each other and which have mutually differing coefficients of thermal expansion. In an important embodiment one of the outer layers is manufactured from steel as a carrier or substrate layer for the laminated structure. The invention also comprises methods for the manufacture of the aforementioned structure and for its application or use as a cathode in plasma sputtering devices for coating objects with material from the boundary layer of the structure which is disposed at the opposite side of the substrate layer. For the purpose of this application, this boundary layer on the opposite surface will frequently possess a composition which is prepared in accordance with a powder metallurgical process.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Tubular rotatable cathodes with an outer target layer which can be deposited on other surfaces are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,073, while tubular stationary cathodes with an inner target layer are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,286. Flat cathodes are of course also known. In particular, from U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,202, the manufacture is known of a cylindrical laminate with a concentrically arranged steel outer layer, whereby the remaining annular space between outer layer and separation layer is filled with a powder metallurgical composition which is compacted using the hot isostatic pressing (HIP) process. A coefficient of thermal expansion has been chosen for the core which is greater than that of the other layers. During cooling following the HIP process the core therefore shrinks more than the other layers and thus separates from the hot-pressed powder layer at the location of the separation layer.
The purpose of the invention is among other things to prevent loosening, separating or pulling away the various layers at their boundary surfaces between the layers in flat or concentrically built-up tubular metal laminated structures as described hereinbefore. Particularly for use as cathodes in magnetrons the electrical and heat-conducting contact between the different layers of the laminate must be secure at all times, however great the mutual differences in their coefficients of expansion.
When using the usual cathodes--either flat or tubular--in cathodic sputtering or evaporation appliances, whereby the coefficient of thermal expansion of the carrier layer (e.g. made from a steel alloy) differs considerably from that of the target layer attached directly thereto, it has been shown that the shrinkage stresses (which occur during the cooling phase of the production process of the structure, for example in HIP processes) generate cracks in the target layer, more particularly if this layer is able to form a brittle intermetallic phase with the (steel) alloy in the boundary zone between the two layers and in particular when this target layer becomes relatively thin. This means that, in order to be able to guarantee sputtering target layers with a relatively constant composition, only partial sputtering of the target layer of cathodes constructed in this way is possible. Consequently these cathodes become unusable in practice while they still carry a relatively large residual thickness of target material which could in theory be used for sputtering. This is a loss factor which must not be underestimated, particularly where the target material is expensive.
This disadvantage inherent in the usual laminated cathodes, whether flat or tubular, is now avoided in accordance with the invention by providing a laminated structure, obtained by high isostatic pressing, and comprising a first metallic (i.e. metal containing) outer layer on one side, which is composed or produced by powder metallurgy, and a second metallic (i.e. metal containing) outer layer on the other side, of which metal elements can form one or more brittle intermetallic phases or structures and/or ordered brittle phases with the first layer. The laminated structure comprise
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Innovative Sputtering Technology N.V. (I.S.T.)
Tarazano D. Lawrence
Thibodeau Paul
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