New ASTM International Electronics Standard Will Impact Tantalum Industry

A proposed new standard currently being developed by ASTM International Committee F01 on Electronics will prove to be useful to the tantalum sputtering target industry. The proposed standard, WK9490, Test Method for Reporting Crystallographic Orientation of Sputtering Target Materials, is under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee F01.17 on Sputter Metallization.

"The tantalum sputtering target industry has struggled for years to find a method to characterize the structural uniformity of tantalum plate," says Kurt Moser, product development manager, H.C. Starck, Inc. "Until the development of electron beam backscatter diffraction, determining crystallographic orientation was laborious and difficult to quantify. With EBSD, this has improved dramatically to the point where we have developed a method to quantify the through-thickness crystallographic orientation uniformity." Moser notes that the proposed method can be used for research and development efforts, product quality evaluation and possibly for specifications.

In addition to being able to test tantalum, the committee believes the proposed standard can be used with other materials, notably niobium and molybdenum. Users of other materials, such as aluminum and copper, are encouraged to comment on the potential usefulness of WK9490 on the materials with which they work. Moser says the committee believes that WK9490 will work with most materials that develop through-thickness texture changes.

All interested parties are invited to participate in the further development of WK9490.

For further technical information, contact Kurt Moser, H.C. Starck Inc., Newton, Mass. (phone: 617/630-5952; kurt.moser@hcstarck.com). Committee F01 will meet Feb. 6, at the February Committee Week in Phoenix, Ariz. For membership or meeting details, contact Scott Orthey, ASTM International (phone: 610/832-9730; sorthey@astm.org).

 

Release #7280

Committee
F01

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