Fundamental understanding and modeling of reactive sputtering processes

The purpose of this article is to explain how different parameters affect the reactive sputtering process. A simple model for the reactive sputtering process is described. Based on this model, it is possible to predict the processing behaviour for many different ways of carrying out this process. It is also possible to use the results of the modeling work to scale processes from laboratory size to large industrial processes. The focus will be to obtain as simple a model that will still quite correctly describe most experimental findings. Despite some quite crude approximations, we believe that the model presented satisfies this criterion.