Patent ID: 6872284

Claim:
A method of determining a desired thickness of plural erosion tracks in a magnetron sputtering target comprising: a) providing a desired precursor sputtering target configuration having a specified sputtering surface and determining the location of said erosion tracks, E- 1 and E- 2 , thereon; b) determining the magnetic field strength at different radial locations RL along the sputtering surface of said precursor sputtering target configuration and determining a time averaged magnetic field strength for points on said erosion tracks, RE- 1 and RE- 2 ; c) determining an optimum ratio range for said magnetic field strengths RE- 1 and RE- 2 determined in (b); d) determining magnetic field strengths at vertical dimensions V above said erosion tracks E 1 and E 2 such that data points VE 1 and VE 2 are generated; e) recording the magnetic field strengths for said vertical dimensions VE 1 and VE 2 ; f) determining a desired increase in vertical dimension for sputtering material at one of said erosion tracks E 1 or E 2 ; and then g) determining the desired vertical height for sputtering material to be added to said sputtering surface at said other erosion track.