A target assembly is provided in which an abnormal discharging between a projected portion of a backing plate and a side surface of the target is prevented and also in which a bonding material to bond the target and the backing plate can be surely prevented from seeping to the outside and also which is easy in reusing the backing plate. The target assembly according to this invention having: a target made of an insulating material; and a backing plate bonded to one surface of the target via a bonding material, the backing plate having a projected portion which is projected outward beyond an outer peripheral edge of the target, further has an annular insulating plate. The annular insulating plate: encloses a circumference of the target while maintaining a predetermined clearance to a side surface of the target; and covers that surface of the projected portion.

An indium sputtering target with a short time to attain a stable film deposition rate once sputtering has begun is provided. An indium sputtering target having a surface to be sputtered with an arithmetic average roughness Ra of from 5 μm to 70 μm prior to sputtering.

A cooling device for cooling a component includes a base element with a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface and forming a rear side, and with a cooling structure having cooling elements that is arranged on the base element so as to protrude over the first surface. The rear side of the base element has a curved configuration and a prestress. Alternatively or additionally, at least one auxiliary element is arranged on the rear side to create a substance bonding between the cooling device and the component.

The manufacturing cost of a sputtering target is reduced and the impurity concentration of the manufactured sputtering target is also reduced. A method of manufacturing a sputtering target includes: surface-treating at least one of a used sputtering target and a scrap material; melting at least one of the used sputtering target and the scrap material after the surface treatment to form an ingot; and manufacturing a sputtering target by subjecting the ingot to forging, rolling, heat treating, and machining.

A sputtering target contains Ge, Sb, and Te and has a high-oxygen region with a high oxygen concentration and a low-oxygen region having a lower oxygen concentration than the high-oxygen region, and has a structure in which the low-oxygen regions are dispersed in island form in a matrix of the high-oxygen region. In the sputtering target, voids with a diameter of 0.5 μm or more and 5.0 μm or less may be present in a range of 2 or more and 10 or less in a range of 0.12 mm.sup.2 for the average density.

A sputtering target comprising a flat part and a tapered part on a sputter surface, wherein of the tapered part includes a crystal distortion having an average KAM value of 0.5° or more. It is possible to lower the ignition failure rate of ignition (plasma ignition), and start the sputter process stably. Because the downtime of the device can thereby be shortened, it is possible to contribute to the improvement in throughput and cost performance.

In a first aspect, the present invention relates to a planar sputtering target comprising a target material layer built up by a layering of splats, wherein the target material layer has a layer width and has a microstructure which varies across the layer width. In a second aspect, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing such a planar sputtering target.

A sputtering target having a unitary body. The unitary body includes a planar substrate plate and a toroidal portion extending from a top surface of the substrate plate. The toroidal portion reduces non-uniform erosion against the plate caused by a magnetic field applied to the target. In use, the magnetic field is initially received at the toroidal portion. After the magnetic field wears down the toroidal portion, the magnetic field is received at the substrate plate.

Provided are a sputtering target that makes it possible to form a chalcogenide material film with enhanced heat resistance, a method of manufacturing the sputtering target, and a memory device manufacturing method. The sputtering target includes an alloy containing a first component containing arsenic and selenium and a second component containing at least one of boron and carbon.

A sputtering target includes at least one single piece with a length of at least 600 mm. The sputtering target has a backing structure provided with target material for sputtering. At least 40% of the mass of the target material includes a so-called target volatile material which shows, at pressures between 700 hPa and 1300 hPa, either a sublimation temperature, or decomposition temperature below its melting point or a melting temperature and an absolute boiling temperature being close to each other. The sputtering target has a target material density of at least 95% of the theoretical density of the target material. The sputtering target includes a bonding layer with a thickness of 0 to 500 μm between the backing structure and the target material.