Development and fabrication of magnetic thin films

For designing and fabricating electromagnetic microactuators as pursued within the collaborate research center “Design and Fabrication of Active Microsystems” (Sonderforschungsbereich 516), soft and hard magnetic materials are required to create and guide magnetic flux. The investigations on the development of suitable materials and their deposition technologies are presented in this paper. In the area of soft magnetic materials, the application of Cobalt–Iron (CoFe) as an alternative to Nickel–Iron (NiFe, Permalloy) was investigated. The benefit of CoFe over NiFe is its greater saturation flux density. The technology utilized for the deposition was electroplating. In the area of hard magnetic materials, gas flow sputtering was applied for depositing Samarium–Cobalt (SmCo). This technology enables the deposition of pure SmCo layers at high deposition rates and without high vacuum. Furthermore, the dependence of the magnetic properties of the SmCo on the film composition was examined.