There is a strong market demand for high rate deposition of thin film oxides onto flexible and rigid substrates. The primary sectors for such materials span established and new growing markets: 1. Capacitive touch panel film& glass-reactive SiO_2 layers and indium tin oxide (ITO) 2. Transparent conducting oxides (TCO) layers for flexible solar cells - aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) & ITO 3. High gas barrier film for PV and OLED applications -aluminum oxide (Al_2O_3) 4. Anti-reflective layer stacks on visual displays - SiO_2/ Nb_2O_5 5. Solar control architectural glazing - Si_3N_4, AlN, ZnO, ZnSnO (ZTO), AZO These layers are predominately deposited by magnetron sputtering. In the case of SiO_2 and Al_2O_3, the process is a reaction between the metallic target material and oxygen gas. Although reactive sputtering is now the dominant industrial method for thin film oxides, currently, for TCO layers used in the solar cell industry the deposition is non-reactive from a ceramic target material with a composition similar to the chemistry of the final layer. This presentation focuses on reactive deposition methods for TCO layers and the means to increase rates via process feedback control and hence reduce layer costs. In addition, the advantages of rotatable magnetrons as opposed to planar magnetrons will be presented. This will focus on the inherent benefits but also means to reduce defects and control the plasma at the growing film by the means of better magnetic confinement of electrons via magnetic coupling of two cathodes.
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