Influence of substrate movement on the ITO film thickness distribution during magnetron sputtering

In this paper, the influence of the translational/rotational movement of the substrate on the thickness distribution of the deposited indium tin oxide (ITO) layer during magnetron sputtering is studied. The ITO films were fabricated in a sputtering system equipped with a circular planar magnetron and then compared with the calculated deposition profiles. For the latter purpose, the distribution of emitted particles appear to be successfully described by the cosinelike (Lambert–Knudsen) law. The comparison results indicate that the presence of the substrate motion is equivalent to the change of the deposition angle in a nonlinear manner controlled by the ratio between the substrate and the effective sputtering velocities. The complete reproduction of the measurement results of the calculations confirms validity of the approach. The study findings provide a distinctive way to predict the film thickness distribution and allow to design a restrictive shield to improve film uniformity in planar magnetron sputtering systems with rotating substrates.