Measurements of Deposition Rate and Substrate Heating in a HiPIMS Discharge

The thermal energy flux delivered to the substrate position was measured for continuous-dc, pulsed dc- and high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) magnetron discharges at the same time-averaged discharge powers. These values were subsequently normalised for measured deposition rates. Titanium coatings were grown under the same process conditions and analysed for alterations in crystal structure via X-ray diffraction. The HiPIMS discharges were found to deliver a significantly lower normalised thermal energy flux to the substrate than both continuous-dc and pulsed-dc sputtering, which is of potential benefit in coating temperature-sensitive substrates; whilst also enabling frequency-dependent modification of film properties resulting from the ionised deposition flux inherent in this process.