Testbourne Ltd

High Purity Metals

Listed on this page is our standard range of pure metals that we have available. Many of these materials come as wires, foils, sheets, powders, rods, pellets, granules, discs and sputtering targets. We are also able to supply crucibles, cones, ribbons and even mesh. Please give full details on the material, purity, dimensions, any special tolerances and the quantity required. We will endeavor to get back to you as soon a possible.

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Inorganic Compounds

This section details the large range of inorganic compounds for R&D and production environments.

Most compounds are supplied in a variety of forms: powders, pieces, tablets, liquids and in a range of purities and sizes.

The purities stated are based on total metallic impurities, unless otherwise stated.

Small R&D quantities are available, along with larger production quantities, enabling Testbourne to work with customers from the beginning of research right through the development stage to full production scale-up.

All materials are supplied with the appropriate Material Safety Data Sheets and Certificate of Analysis, relevant to the lot number supplied. The Certificate of Analysis typically lists metallic impurities only. For non-metallic impurities, please enquire.

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Evaporation of metal alloys is normally done by electron beam heating or thermal evaporation. Careful consideration is required in the choice of crucible or evaporation source to avoid reaction that can cause compositional changes. If the alloy does not melt or no reaction is seen with a crucible then the standard metal boats/crucibles could be used.

Alloys that either melt or sublime will evaporate at different rates and the final thin film composition can vary. It is found that the more volatile element will evaporate first in any alloy, to help minimize this effect continuous feeding of the alloy at a rate equal to the evaporation rate is required.

The ideal method of evaporation would be via flash evaporation; this technique helps to maintain the original composition of the alloy. Powders or sintered pieces are dropped onto a surface with temperature higher than the vaporising temperature of the least volatile element.

Another more common method is sputtering.

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Testbourne offers a fast reliable service for precious metals including gold, palladium, platinum, silver, and many precious metal based alloys. They are available in various forms, most common are Sputtering Targets, Wires, Pellets and Granules. The standard purity is typically 99.99% pure, however Gold is now available in 99.999%, other purity grades are available upon request.

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Sputtering is a proven technology capable of depositing thin films from a wide variety of materials on to diverse substrate shapes and sizes. The process is repeatable and can be scaled up from small research and development projects, to production batches involving medium to large substrate areas. The sputtering gas is often an inert gas such as argon. For efficient momentum transfer projectile mass must match target mass, so for sputtering light elements neon is also used and for heavy elements krypton or xenon. Reactive gases are used to sputter compounds. The chemical reaction can occur on the target surface, in-flight or on the substrate depending on the process parameters. The many parameters make sputter deposition a complex process but allow experts a large degree of control over the growth and microstructure of the film.

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Sputtering targets can be simply clamped to the sputter source cathode inside the sputter depositing system. However, this procedure can prove costly due to cracking, warping or other damage to the target in use caused by inadequate cooling. Wherever possible, it is good practice to bond the sputter target to a strong, compatible backing plate.

Target Bonding is a critical process and the exact fabricating method employed can vary depending on the choice of the sputtering target material. A properly bonded sputtering target will normally give a longer working life than a non-bonded target, may enable the use of a higher power input to achieve faster sputtering rates and will enable thin film process parameters to be consistently repeated.

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As standard practice within our company a Certificate of Analysis is supplied with all ordered materials. X-ray diffraction and spectrographic analyses are carried out for each element and compound. For non-metallic impurities, such as Oxygen, data is available upon request.

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