Low temperature arc ion plating coating

Coating method for arc coating or arc ion plating coating of substrates in a vacuum chamber in which a coating plasma discharge is generated using an arc evaporator in such a manner that a target placed at the arc evaporator and consisting of solid material functions as a cathode and is evaporated, during arc evaporation a motion of a cathode spot on a solid material surface of the solid material is accelerated using a magnetic field having predetermined magnetic field intensities for avoiding ejection of a large amount of macro-particles or droplets from the solid material surface, negative charged particles resulted from the arc evaporation exit the solid material surface of the cathode and flow to an anode, wherein at least part of the anode is separate from walls of the vacuum chamber, characterized by

• an additional increment of an electric potential of the coating plasma caused by using said magnetic field intensities is prevented
• by placing the anode and the cathode such that a space between a portion of the anode overlapping a lateral side surface of the cathode and the lateral side surface of the cathode is unobstructed, and
• by directing magnetic field lines of the magnetic field or at least a majority of the magnetic field lines directly from the solid material surface of the cathode to a surface of the anode along paths that are free of other components and wherein a position and geometry of the anode in relation to the cathode is chosen in such a manner that the magnetic field lines and electric field lines are parallel at the surface of the anode,
• so that a prominent spiral motion of the negative charged particles by flowing from the cathode to the anode is avoided and in doing so a lower increment of a substrate temperature during coating is attained.