Patent ID: 6475359
Filing Date: 2002-11-05
Classification: C23C,H01F

Abstract:
A thin-film processing electromagnet mounted adjacent to an evacuated processing space of a processing chamber containing a substrate having a magnetic material layer on the substrate for low-skew magnetic orientation of the magnetic material layer on the substrate comprising:a plate-shaped core containing magnetically permeable material and having front and back surfaces joined by a periphery; electrically conductive windings wrapped around a region of said plate-shaped core forming at least one electromagnetic coil that produces a substantially uniaxial magnetic field adjacent to said front surface of the plate-shaped core for orienting the magnetic material layer on the substrate; said magnetically permeable material of the plate-shaped core having an effective magnetic mass that varies within the region wrapped by said electrically conductive windings from a center toward the periphery of the plate-shaped core for reducing skew angle of the substantially uniaxial magnetic field adjacent to the front surface of the plate-shaped core over the entire substrate surface area; said effective magnetic mass variation involving a reduction in the mass of magnetically permeable material near the center of the core with respect to the mass of magnetically permeable material near the periphery of the core; and said plate-shaped core together with said electrically conductive windings being mounted adjacent to the evacuated processing space of the processing chamber and positioning the uniaxial magnetic field within the processing space in an orientation parallel to the magnetic material layer on the substrate.