Patent ID: 8025749

Claim:
A method of forming sputter targets comprising the steps of: a) cooling a target blank to a temperature of less than about −50° C., the target blank having grains having an initial grain size and high-purity copper composition; b) deforming the cooled target blank to introduce strain into the target blank and to form a deformed grain structure; c) recrystallizing the deformed grain structure at a temperature of about 150 to 300° C. to form a target blank having recrystallized grains, the target blank having at least about 99 percent recrystallized grains and the recrystallized grains having a fine grain size smaller than the initial grain size, wherein said fine grain size is 10 μm or less; and d) finishing the target blank to form a finished sputter target at a low temperature sufficient to maintain the fine grain size of the finished sputter target at less than 10 μm.