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US 5,423,970 AGranted
Apparatus for reactive sputter coating at least one article
AssigneeBalzers Aktiengesellschaft
InventorEduard Kugler
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AssigneeBalzers Aktiengesellschaft
InventorEduard Kugler
Estimating the term…
An apparatus for performing the method comprising a vacuum treatment chamber containing a target of ohmic conductive material. The target and workpiece are supported by suitable electrodes. Superimposed DC and AC power is applied to generate a glow discharge in the chamber in which the target is sputtered. Particles sputtered off the target react with a reactive gas in the space between the target and workpiece and the reaction product is deposited upon the workpiece. The operating parameters of the system are selected so that sputtering and deposition are performed in an unstable transition mode between a metallic and a reactive mode whereby particles are deposited on the workpiece to form a layer on the workpiece of lower conductivity than the target material. A feedback arrangement is preferably utilized to maintain operation with the aforesaid unstable transition mode.
Apparatus for coating workpieces, comprising a vacuum chamber with a target cathode arrangement adapted to include a target of ohmically conductive material and an anode arrangement, further comprising an electrical source connected to said anode and said cathode arrangements and generating an electric supply consisting of a DC component and a superimposed AC-component, which AC component has a predominant power in the frequency spectrum range below 250 kHz to generate a glow discharge within said vacuum chamber between said cathode and said anode arrangements;
The apparatus according to claim 11 said control means comprising a fast negative feedback control loop circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.