Sintered oxide, method for its production, and sputtering target

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017191153-A1
Application number	US-201515325105-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 27, 2015
Priority date	Jul 31, 2014
Publication date	Jul 6, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a sintered oxide to be used for a sputtering target, whereby little abnormal discharge occurs even during high-power film-deposition and no cracking occurs in the target. A sintered oxide having zinc, aluminum, titanium and oxygen, as constituent elements, characterized in that when the contents of zinc, aluminum and titanium are represented by Zn, Al, and Ti, respectively, the atomic ratios of the elements constituting the sintered oxide are
Al/(Zn+Al+Ti)=0.035 to 0.050 and
Ti/(Zn+Al+Ti)=0.05 to 0.20,
and the average grain size of crystal grains having a Zn 2 TiO 4 crystal phase as the matrix phase in the sintered oxide, is at most 5 μm.

First claim

1 . A sintered oxide having zinc, aluminum, titanium and oxygen as constituent elements, characterized in that when the contents of zinc, aluminum and titanium are represented by Zn, Al, and Ti, respectively, the atomic ratios of the elements constituting the sintered oxide are
Al/(Zn+Al+Ti)=0.035 to 0.050 and Ti/(Zn+Al+Ti)=0.05 to 0.20,
and the average grain size of crystal grains having a Zn 2 TiO 4 crystal phase as the matrix phase in the sintered oxide, is at most 5 μm.

2 . The sintered oxide according to claim 1 , characterized in that crystal grains having a Zn 2 TiO 4 crystal phase as the matrix phase and having a grain size exceeding 20 μm, are not present in the sintered oxide.

3 . The sintered oxide according to claim 1 , characterized in that in the X-ray diffraction of the sintered oxide, no diffraction peak of aluminum oxide phase is present.

4 . The sintered oxide according to claim 1 , characterized in that the relative density is at least 98%.

5 . The sintered oxide according to claim 1 , characterized in that the bending strength is at least 150 MPa.

6 . A sputtering target characterized by using the sintered oxide as defined in claim 1 , as target material.

7 . A thin film characterized in that it is film-deposited by sputtering using the sputtering target as defined in claim 6 .

8 . A method for producing a sintered oxide, characterized by mixing zinc oxide powder, titanium oxide powder and aluminum oxide powder having a BET specific surface area of at least 10 m 2 /g, as raw material powders, so that when the contents of zinc, aluminum and titanium are represented by Zn, Al, and Ti, respectively, the atomic ratios of the elements would be
Al/(Zn+Al+Ti)=0.035 to 0.050 and Ti/(Zn+Al+Ti)=0.05 to 0.20,
followed by molding, and then, firing the obtained molded product.

9 . The method for producing a sintered oxide according to claim 8 , characterized by firing at a temperature of at most 1300° C. in the atmospheric air or in an inert gas atmosphere.

Assignees

• Tosoh Corp

Inventors

• Omi Kenji
• Itoh Kenichi
• Utsumi Kentarou

Classifications

• C04B35/462 Primary

  based on titanates · CPC title

• H01B5/14

  comprising conductive layers or films on insulating-supports · CPC title

• C04B2235/656

  characterised by specific heating conditions during heat treatment · CPC title

• C04B2235/3234

  Titanates, not containing zirconia · CPC title

• C23C14/086 Primary

  of zinc, germanium, cadmium, indium, tin, thallium or bismuth · CPC title