The primary focus of this book is to link the role of sputtering methods, source of sputtering materials and characteristics of sputtered thin films as they apply to industries such as semiconductors, flat-panel displays, data storage and photovoltaics.Sarkar reviews essential industry-related topics, including technology trends, process flows for device manufacturing, sputtering processes, including hollow cathode magnetron, materials science of sputtering target and thin films, and productivity issues.Properties of a wide variety of thin films are covered, including silicides, conductors, diffusion barriers, transparent conducting oxides, magnetic films etc.The author presents various case studies and real-world examples of troubleshooting in an industrial setting.