Patent ID: 7153399

Claim:
A method for depositing a film on substrates by sputter deposition comprising the steps of: providing at least one substrate mounted on a substrate holder affixed to a substantially circular carrier plate, wherein both the substrate and the carrier plate synchronously rotate about their respective normal axes; providing at least two elongated, substantially identical deposition sources (targets) that are angularly spaced to average out X-Y anisotropy in a plane parallel to the substrate, said sources comprising substantially the same materials and operated to provide substantially the same deposition characteristics, having a long dimension positioned parallel to a carrier plate radius, with their surfaces facing the substrate substantially coplanar, said long dimension being substantially larger than a substrate dimension, and having a perpendicular distance between substrate and deposition source surfaces; initiating a sputter deposition process by striking a plasma at sub-atmospheric gas pressure inside a deposition chamber as the carrier plate rotates about its normal axis along with the affixed substrate, which additionally undergoes a concomitant rotation about its own normal axis, as measured relative to the carrier plate, with equal and opposite angular velocity as that of the rotating carrier plate wherein orientation of the substrate relative to each deposition source remains constant as the carrier plate rotates; and depositing successive layers of thin films onto the substrate as it repeatedly traverses each of the deposition sources; wherein the resulting film, comprising a plurality of thin film layers, is formed with substantially uniform thickness and isotropic properties.