Vacuum coating machine high-power pulse magnetron sputtering technology is a very promising vacuum coating technology that has only begun to be popularized. (It only appeared in 1999) It is called High Power Pulse Magnetron Sputtering (HPPMS) in the United States and High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HPIMS) in Europe. It sounds familiar. It is a kind of magnetron sputtering, but it contains a very important feature: the ionization magnetron sputtering process.

          Everyone knows the characteristics of ion plating. The ionization rate is very high under the action of large current arcing, so the formed film has a strong bonding force with the substrate. However, the target material is melted at a high temperature at the arc starting location, and small droplets are generated, thereby generating large particles in the film layer and making the surface of the coated film rough. Adding a magnetic filter circuit can improve the quality of the film, but reduce the deposition rate. In addition, the small droplets are only filtered out and still cause pollution in the vacuum chamber.
         Magnetron sputtering does not have the characteristics of large particles, but the sputtering materials are mainly neutral atoms/atoms, and the sputtering mechanism is kinetic energy. Ionization of sputtering materials is the main direction of magnetron sputtering. The addition of ion sources is only an improvement, and more equipment is added, and pollution components are also increased. Unbalanced magnetron sputtering can ionize some materials, but the ionization rate is only 10%~20%. Moreover, once the magnetic circuit is unbalanced, its diverging electron beam has the disadvantage of burning the surface of the workpiece.
         The pulse peak power of high-power pulsed magnetron sputtering technology of vacuum coating machine is 100 times that of ordinary magnetron sputtering, in the range of 1000~3000W/cm2. For large magnetron targets, megawatt-level sputtering power can be generated. But because the action time is 100-150 microseconds, its average power is equivalent to ordinary magnetron sputtering. This will not increase cooling requirements. The advantage here is that the ionization rate of sputtering materials is extremely high under the power density of 1000~3000W/cm2. But this highly ionized beam does not contain large particles. Generally, the energy level of sputtering materials is only 5-10 eV, while the energy level of high-power pulsed magnetron sputtering materials can reach up to 100 eV. The biggest advantage of high-power pulsed magnetron sputtering is that it can be plated with high-density films without significantly increasing the surface temperature of the substrate.