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Magnetron‐sputtered oxide films are widely used for industrial applications. Especially the coating of large substrate areas implies the requirement for reliable and lateral homogeneous film properties. However, the inhomogeneous distribution of the sputter rate as well as cross‐corner and cross‐magnetron effects may reduce the functional film performance. Therefore, we have investigated the electrical, optical and structural film properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) films in relation to the physical process properties. The films were deposited using a reactive AC dual magnetron discharge and In:Sn targets. For investigation of the influence of the plasma property distribution on film properties static deposition experiments were performed. Substrate temperature measurements have confirmed the inhomogeneous distribution of the plasma properties, resulting from the cross‐magnetron effect.

Piezoelectrical actuators widely used in scanning devices for highly resolved displacement generation exhibit a number of known nonlinear effects as hysteresis and creep. This article describes an attempt to minimize those nonlinearities by recognizing the relation between scan range and voltage magnitude in a scanner specific function. In addition, by utilizing a strain gauge sensor system, a forward displacement correction is realized. The mathematical procedure behind the hysteresis correction is described in detail. The dependence of the higher order correction factors on parameters such as scan speed, scan range, or center position is studied carefully to extract their influence on the result. Finally, integral nonlinearities of about 1% are proven in experiments with an atomic force microscope.

We have investigated the plasma properties of a dual magnetron system used for the deposition of transparent and conductive ITO films. The process properties of a bipolar and unipolar pulsed discharge were investigated while operating the targets in the transition mode. In general, in the bipolar pulsed discharge lower electron temperatures as well as one order of magnitude higher values of charge carrier density were observed compared to the unipolar pulsed discharge. Moreover, strong lateral variations of the charge carrier density in front of the substrate area were found. The influence of the plasma properties on global process parameters, especially on the p O 2–F O 2 curve of the transition mode, is discussed in terms of the dissociation of oxygen in the discharge.