The Plansee Group has released a new inner-diameter coating for monolithic molybdenum targets that is designed to prevent direct contact between the target material and cooling water during the sputtering of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) back contacts.
Molybdenum sputtering targets are used to deposit the back contacts in CIGS cells by magnetron sputtering. Monolithic rotary targets have no backing tube and consist entirely of the thin-film material. With these targets, CIGS manufacturers can considerably increase sputtering performance and consequently achieve greater throughput than with other types of targets, according to Plansee.
When monolithic targets are used, the molybdenum is in direct contact with the cooling water inside the sputtering equipment. Additional particular additives must be used to condition the cooling water for operation with monolithic targets, Plansee explains. With its new coating, the molybdenum is not exposed to cooling water, thus eliminating the need for additional inhibitors.
