282 CHAPTER 4 Sputtering Target Manufacturing

FIGURE 4.79
Microstructure (at 20 x magnification) showing wavy bond zone morphology of the interface after explosive
bonding of 304L stainless steel and medium carbon steel [70].

plates, typically a mixture of 90% silver paste and 10% epoxy is used. The use of silver assures
high thermal and electrical conductivity of the bond interface. At room temperature, curing of
epoxy may take up to 24 hours. In some cases, the cure cycle can be in two steps, e.g., 18 hours at
25 C and 2 hours at 60 C. Self-life of such targets at room temperature can be 4
5 months. A
rough estimate of epoxy required for round targets are as follows: 55 gm for a 4-inch diameter tar-
get, 180 gm for a 10-inch diameter target and 220 gm for a 12-inch diameter target. Targets with
epoxy bonding can be used up to 150 C. Methods of elastomer bonding of targets to backing plates
are proprietary in nature. As a result, only limited information is available in the open literature
[78,79]. Large rectangular targets for displays and photovoltaics are regularly bonded using elasto-
mer. 120” x 111” targets have been bonded using elastomer bonding. For example, 3M’s AF 30/
EC1660 elastomer has been used by Applied Materials Inc. for bonding large area rectangular tar-
gets [71,72]. Elastomer-bonded targets can be used up to an operating temperature of 250 C, which
is higher than the indium bonding.
Electron beam bonding is one of the fusion welding processes in which a beam of high velocity
electrons is used for joining two metallic parts. Electron beam bonding is done inside a vacuum
chamber unlike regular welding. Kinetic energy of electrons is used to melt and weld these parts
locally. Parameters such as accelerating voltage, current, focusing coil current, operating distance
and welding speed are controlled in electron beam bonding. Electron beam bonding produces a nar-
row heat affected zone, which produces fine grains. In some cases, material may undergo rapid
solidification, which can cause cracking in certain materials. Electron beam bonding removes
oxides and impurities from surfaces, which facilitates bonding of the parts. In spite of many advan-
tages, electron beam bonding is expensive and poses size constraint because of the vacuum
chamber size.
Other bonding methods such as plasma arc welding and friction stir welding (FSW) have also
been used to join two components of a sputtering target in a relatively narrow region [73,80,81,
82]. Plasma arc welding is essentially a gas-shielded arc welding technology. Heat generated from
an arc between an electrode (e.g. tungsten) and the target was used to join an aluminum sputtering
target and a support tube made of commercial grade aluminum alloy [73]. In friction stir welding, a