Basically, sputtering consists of bombarding the surface of a target (solid metal, alloy, or ceramic materials) with ions in a specific and tightly controlled gas environment. The atoms of this target are thus vaporised and deposited onto the glass surface. This process can be set-up in batches or with in-line industrial equipment for cost-effective high-volume production.

Even if the sputtering principles can be explained easily, years of experience and sophisticated equipment are necessary to condition the substrate surface, maintain very low vacuum pressure on the industrial equipment, control a highly instable plasma, regulate precisely the magnetic field, manage simultaneously several coat zones and, finally, deposit, consistently and uniformly, the same amount of atoms onto the total surface of the glass substrate.

Today, more and more industry segments are benefiting from this technology: automotive mirrors, packaging, optics, displays (OLED, LCD, plasma TV, projection TV), office automation (scanners, copiers, printers).
Magnetron-based thin film can generally be very thin and very homogeneous: this brings major benefits in display, mirror and touch screen (touch panel) applications as it provides a highly-visible transmission of light and minimise effects of colour and haze.