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AssigneeBalzers Patent und Beteiligungs AG
InventorsMarcel Lardon, Hans Pulker
Estimating the term…
A method of determining the rate of flow of particles in a vacuum deposition device, using the relationship that the rate of flow of the particles is equal to the density of the particle current times the mean velocity of the particles, comprises establishing a flow or current of particles in the device and directing a laser beam through the current of particles in order to measure the atteunation of the beam after it has passed through the particles and thus to determine the vapor density within the current. The absorption wavelength shift of the laser beam provides an indication of the velocity component of the current because the shift is produced by a Doppler effect by the velocity component of the particle current in the direction of flow from the source of the particles to the substrate to be coated. In a preferred embodiment of the method, a housing has a vacuum chamber in which the substrate to be coated is held in a position across the chamber from a source of the coating material which is evaporated or sputtered so that a current of particles moves from the source across the chamber to the substrate. At least one laser beam is directed through the particles and is picked up on the opposite side by a detector which is capable of measuring the absorption wavelength shift. Two laser beams may be directed through the particle stream, including one transverse to the current direction and one parallel to the current direction. The second beam may be provided by using a semi-transparent mirror to deflect the original laser beam so that it is passed through the chamber again in a direction at substantially right angles to the first beam direction.
A method of determining the rate of flow of particles in a vacuum deposition device comprising the steps of establishing a current of particles in the device, directing a first laser beam through the current, measuring the attenuation of the first laser beam due to absorption by the particle current and therefrom determining the vapor density within the current, determining the first laser beam absorption wavelength by observing the beam after it has passed through the current, passing a second laser beam through the current in a direction different from the first laser beam direction and determining the second laser beam absorption wavelength after it has passed through the current, deriving the difference of absorption wavelengths of the two laser beams as an indication of the velocity of the current, and determining the rate of flow of the particles by using the relationship that the rate of flow of the particles is equal to the said vapor density times the said velocity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.