Deposition of aluminium oxide thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering

Aluminium oxide thin films were deposited by direct current (d.c.) reactive magnetron sputtering on glass-slide, silicon wafer, stainless-steel and po lycarbonate substrates. The thicknesses of the films were between 200 nm an d 3.0 mu m. The deposition was controlled by the target voltage to obtain s toichiometric thin films with a high deposition rate. The deposition proces s was studied in terms of target power, I-U characteristics of the target, sputtering gas pressure and substrate bias voltage. The him properties of i nterest were O/Al ratio, density, nanohardness, intrinsic stress, crystallo graphic structure and surface roughness. The deposition rate obtained for s tress-free and transparent aluminium oxide thin film was 215 nm min(-1), 77 % of the rate of metallic aluminium. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rig hts reserved.