Electrical Discharge Characterization of Planar Sputtering System for Gold Target

Abstract

Before using any sputtering system, the extent of the operating pressures and voltages must be known by studying the breakdown curve with the product of the working pressure times the inter electrode distance. In this paper, argon breakdown by dc electrical potentials was experimentally studied. Paschen curves for argon gas were obtained by measuring the breakdown voltage of argon using gold target. These curves display that the breakdown voltage in Ar gas between two planer electrodes comparable with (P. d). The I-V characteristics of the plasma discharge point to that the discharge is working in the abnormal glow region.