Current status and prospects of refractory metal targets for semiconductors

Semiconductors are the pillar industry and strategic foundation of a country. With the development of third-generation semiconductor technology, the manufacturing and material supply of the chip integrated circuits have become the key constraints on the industry development. Tungsten, tantalum, and other refractory metal targets are the key materials for the semiconductor integrated circuits, and the functional films prepared by sputtering have been applied in the various fields of electronic information industry. China has the abundant resources of refractory metals and huge industrial scale, but the high-value target materials still rely on imports. In recent years, the domestic enterprises have continuously improved and enhanced the raw material purification, preparation and processing, and performance control. The preparation of high-purity raw materials and the processing of high-performance targets have been achieved, and the significant progress in the fields of high-purity tungsten, tungsten titanium alloy targets, tungsten silicon alloy targets, and high-purity tantalum targets have been made. The research status of the refractory metal targets for semiconductors in recent years was analyzed in this paper, the technical progress of high purity refractory metal targets in China was introduced, and the suggestions for future development were put forward.