Newly designed magnetron sputtering system called the toroidal magnetron sputtering (TMS) system was developed and evaluated to decrease the damage of thin films surface. On the basis of magnetic field simulation, it was constructed and debugged for the plasma generation of high ionization rate near a target surface. Magnetic field distributions were measured by a magnetic field measurement probe. Auxiliary magnets were added by means of the magnetic field simulation at the corners of the TMS source. As a result, the TMS source could be operated at lower voltage. In the case of the TMS source with the auxiliary magnets, the sputtering yield times the target current density also increased at the same DC power. In this study, we investigated the possibility of employing the TMS system for thin films deposition. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.