Method of operating a plasma process system and a plasma process system

Abstract

A method of operating a plasma process system is provided. The plasma process system includes a plasma process chamber with a plasma process chamber wall connected to an electrical potential, a high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) power supply for supplying high voltage high power pulses, and an electrode inside the plasma process chamber connected to the HiPIMS power supply. The method includes, in a first supply step, supplying, by using the HiPIMS power supply, pulses of high voltage with a first potential, with a pulse-on time duration to the electrode, in a first interrupt step, disconnecting the HiPIMS power supply after the pulses for a pulse-off time duration, and in a second supply step, connecting the electrode to a second potential of an opposite sign of the first potential in relation to the plasma process chamber wall immediately before the pulses of high voltage with the first potential start.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.