Growth predicted for sputtering target and sputtered film markets
01/01/2000
The total value of the worldwide sputtering target market will increase at an 8.8% average annual growth rate (AAGR) during the next five years, climbing from an estimated $720 million in 1999 to $1.1 billion in 2004, according to the recently published Business Communications Co. (BCC) report Sputtering Targets and Sputtered Films: Technology and Markets.
Sputtering targets are value-added, engineered materials that are used to fabricate a variety of high-technology, thin-film products in the microelectronics, advanced display, data storage, and optical coatings industries.
Total world markets
In 1999, according to the BCC report, an estimated 6.35 million lbs (2.88 million kg) of sputtering target material were consumed to sputter-deposit 363 million m2 of thin films for microelectronics, advanced display, data storage, and optical coating applications (see figure).
 |
RIGHT. Total world markets for sputtered films and sputtering targets, 1999 and 2004.
In terms of target units, the worldwide market for sputtering targets totaled approximately 374,000 units in 1999. The mean target size (lbs/target) that can be derived from these data is averaged over an extremely large range of target dimensions. A sputtering target used in production may vary in shape and size from <15cm in diameter to as large as 3m in length, depending on the application.
The leading end user of sputtering targets, in terms of target poundage consumed annually, is the optical coatings industry, which accounted for 73% of the total worldwide target market in 1999 with its production of large-area coated glass products. The second largest market for sputtering targets, again in terms of target poundage, is the microelectronics industry, which claimed a 12% market share in 1999. The magnetic and optical storage industry accounted for 8% of the 1999 world target market and producers of flat panel display (FPD) devices, such as liquid crystal displays, claimed a 6% market share.
Interestingly, if the total sputtering target market is segmented in terms of target units instead of target poundage, the microelectronics and data storage industries are the leaders with approximately 95% of the total worldwide market. This is due to the relatively small sizes (e.g., 20cm in diameter) of the targets consumed for these coating applications compared to the much larger rectangular targets used for glass coating or FPD production, which may be up to 3m in length.
Sputtering will remain a critical thin-film deposition technique in each market segment through the duration of the forecast period. BCC projects that worldwide production of sputtered films will increase at an AAGR of 16% from 1999 to 2004, reaching 764 million m2 of sputter-deposited films in 2004.
Sputtering target consumption will rise at a slower rate than production of sputtered thin films during the next five years, primarily as a result of film thickness decreases in certain market segments and overall improvements in the use of target material. Currently, only about 25% of the target material is actually sputtered from the target during deposition, due to limitations in cathode design. Sputtering target end users are pushing for increases in target lifetimes to improve process efficiency and cut costs.
BCC projects that worldwide consumption of sputtering targets will increase at a 6.0% AAGR during the forecast period, leading to a 2004 market size of 8.49 million lbs (3.85 million kg) or approximately 510,000 sputtering targets. These data are discussed in greater detail and segmented according to end-use industry, application, and material type in the BCC report.
Technology trends
Not surprisingly, trends in sputtering target materials reflect the evolving needs of the thin-film industry — and thin-film products and devices are indeed undergoing change. Integrated circuit manufacturers are reacting to the emergence of copper films as a low-resistivity alternative to sputtered aluminum interconnects. A variety of thin-film display devices are competing in the FPD market to displace the bulky cathode ray tubes in computer monitors and television sets. In the data storage industry, the areal densities of magnetic hard disks continue to increase and new optical disk formats are emerging. Consumer awareness of the cost savings associated with energy efficiency is driving new developments in optical coatings for windows.
In response to these changes, sputtering target manufacturers are developing new and higher-quality target materials and improved target fabrication methods. For example, target microstructures are being refined and optimized to satisfy the needs of the semiconductor industry, which demands extremely high-quality target materials that lead to a minimum of defects and inhomogeneities in the deposited films. A variety of complex alloy and compound sputtering targets are emerging to satisfy the requirements for exotic new thin-film materials in the optical data storage market. In response to the needs of producers of FPD devices and coated glass products, target producers are fabricating ever-larger sputtering targets of planar and cylindrical geometries that feature improved target material utilization factors.
Target requirements for microelectronics
Of all the industries that use sputtering targets and sputtered films, the semiconductor industry is the most demanding in terms of film- and target-quality requirements. Sputtering targets of highly engineered microstructures are needed to satisfy the stringent purity, uniformity, and performance specifications of IC thin films. A fine target grain size and uniformity have been found to be critical factors in ensuring a consistent film deposition rate across the width of the substrate. Also impacting film uniformity is the crystallographic orientation of the target material. Additionally, and not surprisingly, the purity of the sputter-deposited film is highly dependent on sputtering target purity. Very clean target materials of 99.995% (4N5) purity satisfy the needs of 0.35µm IC feature sizes, but will not suffice for sub-0.25µm geometries. Extraordinarily high-purity levels of 5N and even 6N will be required for targets used to manufacture ICs of 0.18µm geometries and below.
Shrinking linewidths are impacting not only target microstructures but also target materials. The most prominent trend in microelectronic thin-film materials is the transition from aluminum interconnects to lower-resistivity copper. Today, sputter-deposited aluminum alloys, in particular aluminum-silicon and aluminum-copper alloys, are the standard interconnect materials.
This will gradually change, however. Copper, which boasts better electromigration resistance than aluminum, in addition to lower resistivity, is poised to take over as the primary IC conductor as linewidths shrink to a quarter micron and below. This shift to copper-based metallization schemes will have enormous implications for sputtering materials and technology, including a transition from sputter-deposited Al to electro-deposited Cu interconnect films with a sputtered Cu seed layer and a change from sputter-deposited TiN and TiW diffusion barrier layers to TaN, WN, TaSiN, WSiN, or other barrier materials.
Industry structure
The world's leading manufacturers of sputtering targets are headquartered in the US, Germany, and Japan. In the US alone, approximately 50 small- to medium-size companies serve as manufacturers and/or distributors of sputtering targets. Several hundred people are involved in the target activities (production, management, sales, etc.) of the largest companies in the industry.
All of the leading manufacturers have moved to establish multiple production plants and sales and service locations worldwide, increasing their geographic accessibility to their customers. Of primary importance to the leading firms is establishing a presence in Asia, particularly in the emerging markets of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. These countries are playing host to a growing number of manufacturing plants for thin-film-based devices and products, and thus present important new market opportunities for target manufacturers.