Method and apparatus for vacuum deposition of highly ionized media in an electromagnetic controlled environment

A method for vacuum depositing a coating on a substrate comprising:

• vaporizing a deposition species in a vacuum process chamber to form an evaporant;
• forming a plasma by ionizing the evaporant using an external power source with electrodes located within the process chamber;
• generating a non-uniform magnetic field throughout the process chamber which contains the plasma and acts as a barrier to high energy electrons in the plasma striking the substrate said magnetic field having a primary axis;
• subjecting the ionized evaporant to a dc electric field with field vectors oriented generally perpendicular to the primary axis of the magnetic field and parallel to a face of the substrate;
• and then
• moving the substrate through the plasma along a direction of motion generally parallel to the primary axis of the magnetic field to deposit the coating on the substrate to a desired thickness.

A method of vacuum deposition for plating a substrate having an exposed face with a metal, comprising:

• evaporating the metal in a vacuum process chamber to form an evaporant;
• ionizing the evaporant to form a plasma using electrodes mounted within the process chamber coupled to a rf power source;
• generating magnetic field lines in the process chamber to provide a barrier to high energy electrons in the plasma striking the substrate;
• subjecting the ionized evaporant to a dc electric field having electric field vectors oriented generally perpendicular to the magnetic field lines in a deposition volume;
• and then
• moving the substrate through the deposition volume on an electrically biasable carrier with a face of the substrate held by the carrier generally parallel to the magnetic field lines to deposit the metal onto the face.