Ion beam source with coated electrode(s)
AssigneeGuardian Industries Corp.
InventorsVijayen S. Veerasamy, Rudolph Hugo Petrmichl, Henry A. Luten
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Abstract
An ion source includes an anode and/or cathode which is/are coated with a conductive coating. The coating has a sputtering yield less than that of an uncoated anode and/or cathode, so that erosion of the resulting anode and/or cathode in the source is reduced during source operation. Example coating materials for the anode and/or cathode of the ion beam source include metal borides including but not limited to TiB2 and ZrB2.
Claims27
An ion source comprising:
- an anode and a cathode, with an electric gap defined between the anode and the cathode;
- and
- wherein at least one of the anode and cathode is at least partially coated with a conductive coating comprising a metal boride.
An ion source comprising:
- a conductive anode and a conductive cathode, with a gap defined between the anode and the cathode;
- and
- wherein the ion source is manufactured so that at least one of the anode and cathode is at least partially coated with a coating comprising a metal boride.
An ion source comprising:
- a conductive anode and a conductive cathode, with an electric gap defined between the anode and the cathode;
- and
- wherein the ion source is manufactured so that at least one of the anode and cathode is at least partially coated with a conductive coating having a sputtering yield of no more than about 20% of the sputtering yield of an uncoated anode or cathode.
A method of making an ion source, the method comprising:
- providing an anode and a cathode;
- coating at least a portion of the anode and/or cathode with a conductive coating characterized by at least one of:
- (a) the coating comprises a metal boride, (b) the coating has a bulk resistivity of no greater than about 20×10−5 ohms-cm, (c) the coating has a sputtering yield of no more than about 20% of the sputtering yield of an uncoated anode or cathode;
- and
- arranging the anode and cathode so as to define an electric gap therebetween in the ion beam source.
A method of making a coated article, the method comprising:
- providing an ion source including an anode and cathode with an electric gap defined therebetween, wherein at least a portion of the anode and/or cathode is coated with a conductive coating that is characterized by at least one of:
- (a) the coating comprises a metal boride, (b) the coating has a bulk resistivity of no greater than about 20×10−5 ohms-cm, (c) the coating has a sputtering yield of no more than about 20% of the sputtering yield of an uncoated anode and/or cathode on which the coating is provided;
- providing a substrate;
- and
- causing flow of at least one gas through the electric gap between the anode and cathode so as to ionize gas, and wherein resulting ions are directed from the source toward the substrate in order to etch, mill and/or form a film on the substrate.
An ion source comprising:
- a conductive anode and a conductive cathode, with a gap defined between the anode and the cathode;
- and
- wherein the ion source is manufactured so that at least one of the anode and cathode is at least partially coated with a coating comprising at least one of:
- a boride, a nitride, and a carbide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.