An advanced sputter target is disclosed. The advanced sputter target comprises two components, a porous carrier, and a metal material disposed within that porous carrier. The porous carrier is designed to be a high porosity, open cell structure such that molten material may flow through the carrier. The porous carrier also provides structural support for the metal material. The cell sizes of the porous carrier are dimensioned such that the capillary action and surface tension prohibits the metal material from spilling, dripping, or otherwise exiting the porous carrier. In some embodiments, the porous carrier is an open cell foam, a weave of strands or stacked meshes.

A method of manufacturing a battery cathode for a solid state battery is provided. The method includes generating a plasma remote from one or more targets suitable for forming cathodes, such as LiCoO.sub.2, exposing the plasma target or targets to the plasma, thereby generating sputtered material from the target or targets, and depositing sputtered material on a first portion of a substrate, thereby forming crystalline material, such as LiCoO.sub.2 on the first portion of the substrate.

A method of depositing a material on a substrate is provided. The method includes generating a plasma remote from one or more sputter targets suitable for plasma sputtering, wherein at least one distinct region of the one or more targets includes an alkali metal, alkaline earth metal, alkali metal containing compound, alkaline earth metal containing compound or a combination thereof; generating sputtered material from the target or targets using the plasma; and depositing the sputtered material on the substrate, the working distance between the target and the substrate being within +/−50% of the theoretical mean free path of the system.

Objects of the present invention consist in achievement of both of elongation of life of a sputtering target as well as uniformity of a thickness of a resulting thin coating layer formed on a substrate during the period. The present invention provides a sputtering target comprising a target material, which is characterized in that the target material has a sputtering surface having a first area placed at the center, which is circular and flat; and a second area placed outside of the first area and concentrically with the first area, which has a ring shape, wherein the first area is positioned at a location lower than that of the second area by 15% of thickness of the second area at most, and the first area has a diameter which is ranging from 60% to 80% of a circumferential diameter of the sputtering surface.

Conventional electrochromic devices frequently suffer from poor reliability and poor performance. Improvements are made using entirely solid and inorganic materials. Electrochromic devices are fabricated by forming an ion conducting electronically insulating interfacial region that serves as an IC layer. In some methods, the interfacial region is formed after formation of an electrochromic and a counter electrode layer, which are in direct contact with one another. The interfacial region contains an ion conducting electronically insulating material along with components of the electrochromic and/or the counter electrode layer. Materials and microstructure of the electrochromic devices provide improvements in performance and reliability over conventional devices. In addition to the improved electrochromic devices and methods for fabrication, integrated deposition systems for forming such improved devices are also disclosed.

Disclosed is a method of fabricating a resistive switching memory. A method of fabricating a resistive switching memory according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a step of forming a lower electrode on a substrate; a step of forming a resistive switching layer on the lower electrode using sputtering; and a step of forming an upper electrode on the resistive switching layer, wherein, in the step of forming a resistive switching layer on the lower electrode using sputtering, the substrate is disposed in a region, which is not reached by plasma generated by the first and second targets, between the first target and the second target disposed above the substrate to deposit the resistive switching layer.

One example of the disclosure provides a method of fabricating a chamber component with a coating comprising a yttrium containing material with desired film properties. In one example, the method of fabricating a coating material includes providing a base structure comprising an aluminum containing material. The method further includes forming a coating layer that includes a yttrium containing material on the base structure. The method also includes thermal treating the coating layer to form a treated coating layer.

Interconnect structures and methods and apparatuses for forming the same are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method includes supplying a process gas to a process chamber; igniting the process gas into a plasma in the process chamber; reducing a pressure of the process chamber to less than 0.3 mTorr; and after reducing the pressure of the process chamber, depositing a conductive layer on a substrate in the process chamber.

Methods and apparatus for processing substrates are provided herein. For example, a magnet to target spacing system configured for use with an apparatus for processing a substrate comprises a sensor configured to provide a signal corresponding to a distance between a front of a magnet and a back of a target while rotating the magnet with respect to the target and a magnet controller configured to control the distance between the front of the magnet and the back of the target based upon the signal provided by the sensor.

Provided is a sputtering target containing 0.05 at % or more of Bi, and having a total content of metal oxides of from 10 vol % to 70 vol %, the balance containing at least Ru.