Back to results
US 5,690,796 AGranted
Method and apparatus for layer depositions
AssigneeBalzers Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsFrancois DuPont, Erich Bergmann
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
It is suggested for depositing layers of mechanically resistant material, in particular on highly stressed tools, to coat the workpieces (7) alternatingly by means of reactive cathode sputtering (1, 13) and to after-treat them by means of a further plasma discharge (3).
Claims44
A method for depositing a layer on a surface of a workpiece to be coated, comprising:
- establishing a reactive gas atmosphere;
- cathode sputtering a solid material phase using a sputtering plasma discharge in the reactive gas atmosphere;
- depositing a layer on the surface of the workpiece to be coated, the layer comprising the reaction product of solid material sputtered from the solid material phase, and reactive gas from the reactive gas atmosphere;
- establishing a substantially non-reactive gas atmosphere;
- generating in the substantially non-reactive gas atmosphere, at least one further plasma discharge in addition to the sputtering plasma discharge;
- repeatedly and cyclically exposing the surface of the workpiece to be coated, at repeated times, to the cathode sputtering in the reactive gas atmosphere, and at repeated different times to the further plasma discharge in the substantially non-reactive gas atmosphere, said further plasma discharge causing substantially no solid material to be deposited on the surface of the workpiece to be coated, and the surface of the workpiece being exposed to the cathode sputtering a plurality of said times and the surface of the workpiece being exposed to the further plasma discharge a plurality of said different times.
3 more elements
A coating apparatus with a vacuum receptacle having a cylindrical inner wall, the apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of cathode sputtering sources with respective plasma discharge paths arranged along a coaxial circle along said cylindrical inner wall;
- a reactive gas feed to said cathode sputtering sources;
- a further plasma discharge path extending centrally along an axis of a cylinder formed by said cylindrical inner wall and being operatable simultaneously with said sputtering sources;
- at least one further gas feed from a non-reactive gas source to said further plasma discharge path, said further plasma discharge path not acting on a solid material source to free solid coating material;
- a plurality of workpiece carrier turrets with axes parallel to said further plasma discharge path and arranged between said further plasma discharge path and said inner wall and carrying workpiece carriers remote from said respective axes;
- and
- drive means connected to said workpiece carrier turrets for rotating said turrets around their axes for repeatedly and cyclically exposing workpieces at said workpiece carriers alternatingly to said cathode sputtering sources and to said further plasma discharge path, said drive means being operative so that said workpiece carrier turrets are additionally and simultaneously rotatably driven around said further plasma discharge path and along said cathode sputtering sources so as to homogenize an effect of said cathode sputtering sources and of said further plasma discharge path with respect to said workpieces as said workpiece carriers rotate around said turret axes.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.