Sputtering is the preferred vacuum deposition technique used by manufacturers of semiconductors, CDs, disk drives, and optical devices. Sputtered films exhibit excellent uniformity, density, purity and adhesion. It is possible to produce alloys of precise composition with conventional sputtering, or oxides, nitrites and other compounds by reactive sputtering.

Substrates are placed into the vacuum chamber, and are pumped down to their process pressure. Sputtering starts when a negative charge is
applied to the target material (material to be deposited), causing a plasma or glow discharge.

Positive charged gas ions generated in the plasma region are attracted to the negative biased target plate at a very high speed. This collision creates a momentum transfer and ejects atomic size particles from the target. These particles traverse the chamber and are deposited as a thin film onto the surface of the substrates.