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US 4,290,877 AGranted
Sputtering apparatus for coating elongated tubes and strips
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Interior
InventorRobert Blickensderfer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A conventional sputtering chamber is modified to include two elongated hollow tubes which accommodate an elongated workpiece in the form of a tube or strip, of lesser diameter, during a sputter-coating operation. During the sputtering operation, the workpiece is simultaneously rotated and moved back and forth beneath at least one sputtering target to receive a uniform coating thereon.
Claims5
Apparatus for sputter-coating a layer of uniform thickness onto the surface of an elongated workpiece, comprising:
- a sputtering chamber with at least one disk-shaped cathode located therein;
- means attached to said sputtering chamber for accommodating the entire length of said elongated workpiece;
- said means for accommodating said workpiece being greater in length than said vacuum chamber and locating a portion of said workpiece adjacent said at least one disk-shaped cathode;
- means for forming a sputtering plasma in said sputtering chamber;
- and
- means located within said accommodating means for simultaneously rotating said workpiece while moving said workpiece along the length of said accommodating means and past said at least one disk-shaped cathode during a sputtering operation to deposit a coating of uniform thickness on said elongated workpiece.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.