The thin film material market value will grow to $10.25 billion by 2018, at a significant CAGR from 2013 to 2018.

The thin film material market is directly influenced by the growth in the end-user industries, such as photovoltaic solar cells, MEMS, electrical, and others. Owing to the increasing demand for photovoltaic solar cells from both mature and emerging economies, the market promises better growth in the coming years.

Increased government regulations for renewable energy also contribute to the market growth of the photovoltaic solar cells industry.

Europe represents the single-largest market for thin film material for the same period, followed by North America, and Asia-Pacific.

In terms of applications, photovoltaic solar cells, MEMS, semiconductor, electrical and optical coating are major applications of thin film material. Read More

Sputtering process is used in a variety of applications such as flat panel displays, optical discs, automotive and architectural glass, web coating, hard coatings, optical communications, solar cells, semiconductors, magnetic data storage devices, electron microscopy, and decorative applications.

Typical materials used in these applications are Copper, Chromium, Chromium-Molybdenum, Aluminium, Titanium, Aluminium-Titanium, Tungsten, Nickel, Silicon, Indium and Silver, amongst others.

Sputtering process can be used for depositing thin films from a wide range of materials on to different substrates. Although process parameters make sputtering a complex process, they allow a greater degree of control over the film’s growth and structure.

A gold coating is a very thin film of gold deposited onto a supporting substrate. This serves as a very useful substrate in the life science academia & industrial markets.

• Typical characteristics of gold surfaces include:
• Good resistance to oxidation
• Inert surface for use with biological experimentation
• Good conductor of electricity
• Ultra smooth surfaces can be prepared
• Easily forms thiol chemistry self-assembled monolayers (SAM)

Glossary of Terms

• Nanometer (nm): 1×10-9 m
• Ångström (Å): 0.1 nm
• E-beam Evaporation: A physical vapor deposition technique used for thin film coatings.
• Adhesion Layer: A thin layer deposited for improving the adhesion of gold on to the substrate (material to be coated).
• Roughness: A measure of surface smoothness.
• Grain Size: The size of gold grains present on the surface. Grain size has an effect on the roughness of the gold surface.
• Self Assembled Monolayers(SAM): Surfaces consisting of a single layer of molecules on a substrate, prepared by adding a solution of the desired molecule onto the substrate surface and washing off the excess.

Physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques are commonly used for depositing metal thin films onto a surface.

Magnetron sputtering was initially developed using metal or alloy targets with materials having high electrical conductivity (e.g., Al, Ag, Au, Cu, Ti, Mo, etc.). In order to achieve acceptable deposition rates, the target material needed to be electrically and thermally conductive. Ceramic targets were developed for transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) and usually consisted of films made from compositions of ZnO:Al2O3 (2% wt) or In2O3:SnO2 (10% wt). However, as the name implies, the materials were fairly conductive and were suited for DC magnetron sputtering.

Pulsed-DC and RF magnetron sputtering allows for the deposition of materials with poor electrical conductivity. Semiconductor materials with better electrical conductivity can be sputtered with pulsed-DC power supplies, while insulating materials (mainly ceramics) require RF sputtering. The deposition rates for RF sputtering are generally much lower than with pulsed-DC. Also, pulsed-DC sputtering has a lower deposition rate than DC sputtering. New applications in photovoltaic, thermoelectric, storage, and semiconductor markets are spurring innovation in ceramic and semiconductor sputtering targets.

DC sputtering with metallic targets has fewer process problems since the metals are ductile and the materials feature high conductivity. Conversely, semiconductor and ceramic targets are more prone to process difficulties due to the brittle nature of the materials and the poor electrical and thermal conductivities. In order to achieve consistent sputtering over the life of the target, it is essential to have a well-sintered target material with high density. Voids and cracks in the material can propagate and lead to sputtering problems such as arcing, target cracking, and particle generation. Read More

Vacuum coating by sputtering has established a leading position for the deposition of thin films because of its relatively easy scalability to high volumes and sizes, its good control of most layer characteristics, and its wide variety of available materials and possible coating stacks. The technology is commonly accepted and widely used in the architectural and automotive industries. In display and PV applications, however, the use of rotatable technology has been introduced more recently.

Within the large area coating business, the rotating cylindrical magnetron concept has proven to offer superior properties relative to the planar concept and to satisfy most industrial requirements. The geometry and sputter performance of rotating cylindrical sputter targets result in several advantages relative to planar sputter targets. Read More