Composite target material and method for producing the same

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a composite target material used in the sputter-production of a thin film and a method for producing such composite target material.

2. Description of Related Art

Physical vapor deposition (PVD) has been used to deposit thin films on glass or other substrates. Presently, magnetron sputtering is used for forming a coating in PVD technology. Magnetron sputtering is a process whereby atoms are ejected from a solid target due to bombardment of the target by energetic particles of a magnetron so that a film is formed on the glass or other substrate material. The film is required to have excellent transmission of light, hydrophobicity, and ultra-violet light resistant. However, current solid target material used for film material has a low utilization rate and does not satisfactorily fulfill these requirements.

Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.

The exemplary embodiment provides a process of manufacturing composite target material used for coating a film on glass. The target material contains titanium oxide in a range between about 50 wt % and about 85 wt % and the remainder being stannic oxide or aluminum oxide or a combination of stannic oxide and aluminum oxide. The proportions of Titanium oxide powder, stannic oxide powder or aluminum oxide powder are determined by such factors as the desired properties of the film to be obtained by sputtering the composite target material. If the ratio of titanium oxide is higher than 85 wt %, this will effect hydrophobicity and ultra-violet light resistant of this film. If the ratio of titanium oxide is less than 50 wt %, the film produced by sputtering this target material will have stannic oxide or aluminum oxide in a high ratio and will causes a low transmission of light. In addition, this proportion allows stannic oxide to be evenly distributed on the film and make the target material to have a high utilization rate.

The process of manufacturing the composite target material may include at least the following steps:

Titanium oxide powder, stannic oxide powder or aluminum oxide powder, and binders are provided. In this exemplary embodiment, the titanium oxide powder is in a range between about 40 wt % and about 80 wt %. The stannic oxide powder is in a range between about 15 wt % and about 50 wt %. The binder is in a range between about 5 wt % and about 10 wt %. The titanium oxide power and stannic oxide powder are mixed with the binders to form a mixture. The titanium oxide powders have high purity in a range between about 97% and about 99%, the average size of granules in the powders ranges from 70 μm to 90 μm. The stannic oxide powders have high purity in a range between about 97% and about 99%, the average size of granules in the powders ranges from 70 μm to 90 μm. In other alternative embodiment, stannic oxide powder may be replaced with aluminum oxide powder. It is possible that a combination of stannic oxide and aluminum oxide is mixed with titanium oxide powder.

The binder is mixed with Titanium oxide powder, stannic oxide powder or aluminum oxide powder to form a mixture. The binder includes ethyl orthosilicate and organic solvent. The mass ratio of ethyl orthosilicate to the organic solvent is 1:10. After the mixture including the binder is sintered, ethyl orthosilicate and organic solvent will be burned off or volatile from the mixture. If the proportion of the ethyl orthosilicate is higher 1:10, during sintering the mixture including the binder, some ethyl orthosilicate might remain in the composite target material to reduce the utilization rate of the composite target material. The organic solvent may be ethanol or acetone.

The mixture is pressed into a blank. The pressing process is done at a material temperature from 100° C. to about 300° C. The pressing force is in a range from 100 tons to 200 tons.

The blank is sintered at a temperature in the furnace from about 900° C. to about 1800° C. for about 3 hours to about 4 hours. During the sintering process, the binders are removed from the powders and the individual metal powders metallurgically bond together as material diffusion occurs to remove most of the porosity left by the removal of the binders.

Finally, the mixture is cooled and becomes the finished target material.

The advantage of the process for producing the composite target material in accordance with the present disclosure and the resulting target material has sufficient strength and high relative density. In addition, this proportion of the target material contains titanium oxide in a range between about 50 wt % and about 85 wt % may allow the target material to have a high utilization rate.

It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that different changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the examples hereinbefore described merely being preferred or exemplary embodiments of the disclosure.