By Mike Simmons, Mark George and Liz Josephson, Intellivation LLC
Producing multilayer dielectric coatings via reactive magnetron sputtering on a large-area web is efficient but challenging due to the need for precise reactive gas distribution and concentration control. Ensuring excellent cross-web and down-web uniformity of the layers is essential for high-tech applications. By using in-situ precision optical methods, cross-web uniformity of reactively deposited dielectric coatings can be measured and adjusted quickly; this is crucial for producing high-performance multilayer coatings.
Characterization of the sputtered layers is done in a roll-to-roll (R2R) sputter vacuum coater by fine-tuning the reactive sputter controller, achieving baseline properties of each single layer. Transitioning to R2R deposition and using in-situ optical measurements ensures satisfactory cross-web uniformity for each single layer, which then sequentially are deposited to form a complex multilayer coating. Validating these processes in-situ accelerates the development of new dielectric materials and multilayer designs.
