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Can I sputter an electrically insulating target material with DC or Pulsed DC?

Electrically insulating targets must be sputtered RF. Electrically insulating films, however, can be made through DC/Pulsed DC reactive sputtering. The electrical conductivity of a sputtering target must be greater than 10-7 (ohm-cm)-1 in order to sputter via a DC power supply [1]. This is an experimentally derived quantity and not subject to much debate. 1. J. Szczyrbowski, G. Brauer, W. Dicken, M. Scherer, W. Maab, G. Teschner, and A. Zmelty, Surf. And Coating Technol., 93, 14 (1997)

About the author

Julissa Green graduated from the University of Texas studying applied chemistry. She started her journalism life as a chemistry specialist in Stanford Advanced Materials (SAM) since 2016 and she has been fascinated by this fast growing industry ever since. If you have any particular topics of interest, or you have any questions, you can reach her at julissa@samaterials.com.