Sputtering Components Inc. Swing CathodeTM

Coating large area static substrates, common in the display industry, typically requires large planar magnetrons with moving magnet packs. Although the desired film characteristics can be achieved, the process will suffer from lower sputter rates and power densities due to insufficient target cooling, arcing caused by re-deposition of sputtered material on areas of the target not actively achieved being sputtered, and low target utilization. Sputtering Component Inc. (SCI) has developed the Swing CathodeTM, a rotary magnetron that incorporates a magnet assembly that can be rotated axially within the target tube, to overcome these issues. Replacing a large planar cathode with an optimized array of Swing CathodesTM will allow a coating operation to achieve the desired film uniformity and realize benefits common to rotary technology such as superior process stability, deposition rates, target material utilization, and target lifetimes.