The sputtering of thin films has some advantages over vapor deposition:

1. Sputtered films adhere more strongly to substrates than vapor deposited films, due to the high kinetic energies with which the atoms impinge upon the substrate (1-100 eV for sputtering, 0.1-0.5 eV for evaporation).
2. Sputtered films are typically denser and more uniform.
3. The sputtering process is more versatile. The target may be composed of alloys or composite materials in addition to pure metals. Furthermore, reactive sputtering is a well established technique for creating compound materials such as NbTiN.
4. Both conductive (metals, alloys) and nonconductive (dielectrics, insulators) films may be deposited. (Although
5. The process may be used in a reverse mode just to clean the surface of the substrates prior to sputtering.
6. Sputtering is isotropic, thus covering step-edges, whereas vapor deposition is line-of-sight, enabling techniques such as shadow evaporation.

For machines that do not have quartz crystal monitors (which most sputtering system generally don't, while vapor deposition systems generally do have this), thickness calibrations are necessary every once in a while. Such calibrations can be found on the page of each deposition system. It is crucial to include all relevant information about the process.

A calibration should always include:

• Date of sample fabrication
• Sample ID to find sample in system logbook
• Process parameters (pressure, current, voltage, deposition time, xtal thickness etc.)
• Measurement method (X-ray, RBS, AFM etc.)
• Measurement result
• Rate (nm/s or nm/A)

All deposition systems:

• UHV sputtering system
• Z-400 sputtering system
• ATC-1800F sputtering system
• Oxide epitaxy system
• K-cell evaporator
• E-beam evaporator

Target Planning