There are many technologies available to deposit the thin films required for membrane manufacture.  One favoured route is to use PVD, and in particular magnetron sputtering.  However, this technique is limited in its ability to meet the demands of complex current and next generation membranes. Additionally, it  has many shortfalls that have been shown to be readily overcome using Plasma Quest’s HiTUS technology.

The stable high density plasma generated by HiTUS is done so independently of the target, which significantly opens up the sputter deposition parameter space.  This enables ready tuning of the deposition parameters to optimise the thin film characteristics required of the membrane.  Such optimisation enables very tight control of characteristics such as grain size, stress, density, stoichiometry and film thickness.

The following link shows a project on Palladium Membranes where the HiTUS technology is being applied in this field:

Palladium Membranes