Kinetic Simulations of High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering Process

HiPIMS is the magnetron sputtering regime which utilizes short high voltage pulses of tens of microseconds, as an alternative to the DC operation regime. HiPIMS is characterized by high density of plasma accumulated over the target, high energy of sputtered atoms, and a high ionization fraction of sputter products. Until now, optimization of magnetron devices has been done empirically or using reduced models. Reduced models, for example, may represent densities 10-100x lower than actual experimental densities. We present fully kinetic 3D simulation of HiPIMS discharge using particle-in-cell code Chicago from the developers of LSP [D. Welch, et.al, Phys. Plasmas 13, 063105 (2006)]. The model is validated with experimental measurements showing good agreement in terms of current and sputtering efficiency. Presented simulations capture the plasma formation, sputtering and transport of the sputtered material.