Transition between the discharge regimes of high power impulse magnetron sputtering and conventional direct current magnetron sputtering

Current and voltage have been measured in a pulsed high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) system for discharge pulses longer than 100 mu s. Two different current regimes could clearly be distinguished during the pulses: (1) a high-current transient followed by (2) a plateau at lower currents. These results provide a link between the HiPIMS and the direct current magnetron sputtering (DCMS) discharge regimes. At high applied negative voltages the high-current transient had the characteristics of HiPIMS pulses, while at lower voltages the plateau values agreed with currents in DCMS using the same applied voltage. The current behavior was found to be strongly correlated with the chamber gas pressure, where increasing gas pressure resulted in increasing peak current and plateau current. Based on these experiments it is suggested here that the high-current transients cause a depletion of the working gas in the area in front of the target, and thereby a transition to a DCMS-like high-voltage, lower current regime.