Cigarettes are manufactured using modified automated cigarette making apparatus. The method includes providing a ferromagnetic sputter workpiece and hot rolling the workpiece to a substantially circular configuration sputter target; machining a taper in a surface of the sputter target to have a thickness gradient of the sputter target, where the center of the sputter target is about 0. It is further contemplated that said locking mechanism provides a manual release handle. The compensated commands are coupled to the voltage-mode driver, such that the voltage-mode driver generates a voltage output based upon the compensated command. Such a determination is based on the quantity of data to transmit and information in the list of available time slots and information in the list of subsequently available time slots. A Cu concentration of the Cu\u2014Sn alloy layer gradually decreases from the base side to the surface side.