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Sputter Targets

There are hundreds of applications requiring that a thin film of material be placed on another material. This process of thin film deposition often requires sputter targets. Nordt Engineered Precious Metals can manufacture “Precious Metal “ sputter targets to your specifications. We do not manufacture non-precious targets.

What is Sputtering?
Sputtering is a deposition process which physically removes a target material, like gold, silver or platinum group metals and deposits a bonded coating of the sputtering target material onto the sample.

How Does Sputtering Work?
By bombarding the surface of the target material with gaseous ions (usually Ar) under high voltage acceleration, the ions collide with the target. Atoms or entire molecules of the target material are ejected and propelled against the sample forming a very tight bond. While the conductive coating is sometimes held firmly to the surface by mechanical forces, it is also possible that an alloy or chemical bond may result.

Are all conductive coating properties the same?
No, the coating quality, sample quality, and resulting image quality are very different. It is these very differences in properties that make the selection of the equipment critical in electron microscopy (EM) applications.

Electron Microscope Specimens
Prior to analysis both scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM), may require a conductive coating be applied to the sample
          The Primary Purposes of Conductive Coatings are:.

• To minimize charging of the sample.
• To conduct away heat from the sample during imaging.
• To increase the secondary electron yield of the sample.

         The selection of instruments that can produce these coatings usually depends on:

• The resolution of the microscope
• The sample material
• The application for which the microscope is being utilized.

           Instrument choices that produce conductive coatings could include:

• Magnetron Sputter Coaters
• Vacuum Evaporators
• Electron Beam Evaporators
• Ion Beam Sputtering Systems.