Patent ID: 8702913

Claim:
A film formation method that sputters a target having a sputtered surface inclined relative to a surface of a substrate to form a thin film on the surface of the substrate, the method comprising: a test sputtering process including: changing a rotational angle of the target by driving a rotation mechanism that rotates the target about an axis extending along a normal of the sputtered surface; sputtering the target at each of a plurality of different rotational angles to form a plurality of different thin films; and determining a constant target value for the rotational angle based on film thickness uniformity of the plurality of thin films; and a main sputtering process including: driving the rotation mechanism to set the rotational angle of the target at the constant target value; and sputtering the target while maintaining the rotational angle of the target at the constant target value, which is set in accordance with the target to be sputtered, until the main sputtering process to form the thin film using the target on the surface of the substrate is completed.