Thruster Technology Applied to a 30-cm Multipole Sputtering Ion Source

A 30-cm electron bombardment ion source has been designed and fabricated for micromachining and sputtering applications. This source has a multipole magnetic field that employs permanent magnets between permeable pole pieces. An average ion current density of 1 mA/cm with 500 eV argon ions was selected as a design operating condition. The ion beam at this operating condition was uniform and well collimated, with an average variation of ± 5% over the center 20 cm of the beam at a distance up to 30 cm from the ion source.