Plasma arc apparatus for producing diamond semiconductor devices

Apparatus for producing semiconductor devices, comprising:

• a vacuum chamber;
• one or more plasma arc guns in said vacuum chamber;
• loading means for loading a substrate holder into said vacuum chamber;
• irradiating means for irradiating a substrate on said substrate holder with at least one plasma arc beam from said one or more plasma arc guns;
• pulse control means for applying precisely controlled time duration pulses to said one or more plasma-arc guns, said pulse control means comprising;
• start means for applying a start current to said one or more plasma-arc guns to strike an arc, pulse generating means applying current to said one or more plasma-arc guns to sustain said arc, clock oscillator means, a first register for starting pulses from said clock oscillator while current to said one or more plasma-arc guns is on, gate means gating pulses from said clock oscillator to said first register, a second register storing a preset pulse count representing a preselected time period when current to said one or more plasma-arc guns is on, first comparing means comparing the preset pulse count in said second register with the pulse count gated to said first register, stop pulse generating means generating a stop pulse to stop current to said one or more plasma-arc guns;
• a third register for storing pulses from said clock oscillator while current to said one or more plasma-arc guns is off, a fourth register storing a preset pulse count representing a preselected time period when current to said one or more plasma-arc guns is off, second comparing means for comparing the number of pulses stored in said fourth register with the number of pulses received by said third register;
• restart pulse generating means for restarting current to said one or more plasma-arc guns;
• whereby application of current to said one or more plasma-arc guns to supply material to said substrate is precisely controlled.