Controlling the ion to neutral ratio by measuring the plasma emission in a non-reactive HIPIMS process

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering is nowadays a well-known technology for influencing the growing thin film by a high peak current and is increasingly used in industrial application. In many deposition processes the main parameters for depositing films in a non-reactive mode are the average power, voltage and peak current. But the growing film is mainly influenced by the ratio of incoming neutrals to ion.

This presentation will show the ionization degree of a Titanium plasma measured by optical emission spectroscopy. The investigated parameters are the working pressure, the pulse time parameters, the applied charging voltage and the resulting peak current. The work will also show, first approaches for keeping a constant ion to neutral ratio for a metallic process.