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In any plasma based thin film deposition technique, the importance of ion bombardment during film growth cannot be exaggerated. The high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) technique, first reported in 1999 by Vladimir Kouznetsov, has shown promising results regarding the plasma properties and thin film growth. The plasma produced by HIPIMS is highly ionized and droplet free. For some materials the degree of ionization is as high as > 90 %. A high degree of ionization is often desired due to the increased capability to control the energy and direction of incoming species and tendency to form dense microstructures. Since films prepared by HIPIMS combine some of the benefits of arc evaporation (dense microstructure) and DC magnetron sputtering (flat surfaces) it is imperative that HIPIMS is a potential deposition technology for future manufacturing industry. In this presentation we give an overview of the HIPIMS process and plasma parameters along with some examples on film growth and etching. |