A method of manufacturing an electronic component including a substrate is provided. The method includes generating a plasma remote from a sputter target, generating sputtered material from the sputter target using the plasma, and depositing the sputtered material on a substrate as a crystalline layer.

Provided is a sputtering target material having excellent crack resistance and a method of producing the same. Also provided is a sputtering target material and a method of producing the same. The sputtering target material is composed of an alloy consisting of B; one or more rare earth elements; and the balance consisting of Co and/or Fe and unavoidable impurities. The amount of B in the alloy is 15 at. % or more and 30 at. % or less. The one or more rare earth elements are selected from the group consisting of Pr, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, and Ho. The total amount of the one or more rare earth elements in the alloy is 0.1 at. % or more and 10 at. % or less.

An FePt-based sintered sputtering target containing C and/or BN, wherein an area ratio of AgCu alloy grains on a polished surface of a cross section that is perpendicular to a sputtered surface of the sputtering target is 0.5% or more and 15% or less. An object of this invention is to provide a sputtering target capable of reducing particles generation during sputtering and efficiently depositing a magnetic thin film of a magnetic recording medium.

Provided is a Fe—Co-based alloy sputtering target material having a composition represented as an atomic ratio by the compositional formula: (Fe.sub.a—Co.sub.100-a).sub.100-b-c-d—Ta.sub.b—Nb.sub.c-M.sub.d, wherein 0<a≦80, 0≦b≦10, 0≦c≦15, 5≦b+c≦15, 2≦d≦20, 15≦b+c+d≦25, and M represents one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Mo, Cr and W, with the balance consisting of unavoidable impurities, wherein the sputtering target material has a bending fracture strain ε.sub.fB at 300° C. of 0.4% or more.

The present disclosure provides a bias magnetic field control method, a magnetic thin film deposition method, a chamber, and an apparatus. The control method includes the following step: S1, rotating the bias magnetic field device by a fixed angle along a circumferential direction of a base every first preset application time length of a target until total application time length of the target reaches an upper limit. Each time the bias magnetic field device is rotated in a same direction. With the technical solution of the bias magnetic field control method, the magnetic thin film deposition method, the chamber, and the apparatus of the present disclosure, the lifetime of the target may be increased, and the utilization rate of the target and the film thickness uniformity may be improved to reduce manufacturing cost.

A magnetic alloy material that includes iron and cobalt as main components and at least one element selected from the group containing of platinum, gold, and iridium.

A CoPt-oxide-based in-plane magnetized film having a magnetic coercive force of 2.00 kOe or more and remanent magnetization per unit area Mrt of 2.00 memu/cm.sup.2 or more. The in-plane magnetized film for use as a hard bias layer of a magnetoresistive element contains metal Co, metal Pt, and an oxide. The in-plane magnetized film contains the metal Co in an amount of 55 at % or more and less than 95 at % and the metal Pt in an amount of more than 5 at % and 45 at % or less relative to a total of metal components of the in-plane magnetized film, and contains the oxide in an amount of 10 vol % or more and 42 vol % or less relative to a whole amount of the in-plane magnetized film. The in-plane magnetized film has a thickness of 20 nm or more and 80 nm or less.

A sputtering target according to the present invention contains Co and one or more metals selected from the group consisting of Cr and Ru, as metal components, wherein a molar ratio of the content of the one or more metals to the content of Co is ½ or more, and wherein the sputtering target contains Nb.sub.2O.sub.5 as a metal oxide component.

A CoPt-oxide-based in-plane magnetized film having a magnetic coercive force of 2.00 kOe or more and remanent magnetization per unit area Mrt of 2.00 memu/cm.sup.2 or more. The in-plane magnetized film for use as a hard bias layer of a magnetoresistive element contains metal Co, metal Pt, and an oxide. The in-plane magnetized film contains the metal Co in an amount of 55 at % or more and less than 95 at % and the metal Pt in an amount of more than 5 at % and 45 at % or less relative to a total of metal components of the in-plane magnetized film, and contains the oxide in an amount of 10 vol % or more and 42 vol % or less relative to a whole amount of the in-plane magnetized film. The in-plane magnetized film has a thickness of 20 nm or more and 80 nm or less.

[Object] To provide a sputtering target with further improved sputtering efficiency, and a method of producing the sputtering target. [Solving Means] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a sputtering target according to an embodiment of the present invention is a cobalt target having a sputtering surface and a purity of 99.95 wt % or more. An intensity ratio (I.sub.(002)+I.sub.(004))/(I.sub.(100)+I.sub.(002)+I.sub.(101)+I.sub.(102)+I.sub.(110)+I.sub.(103)+I.sub.(112)+I.sub.(004)) of X-ray diffraction peaks corresponding to a (100) plane, a (002) plane, a (101) plane, a (102) plane, a (110) plane, a (103) plane, a (112) plane, and a (004) plane of a hexagonal close-packed lattice structure along the sputtering surface is 0.85 or more.