Apparatus and method for coating substrates with vacuum depositable materials
OwnerJames Andrew McLaughlin, John McCune Anderson +1inventors
InventorsJames Andrew McLaughlin, John McCune Anderson, Paul Damian Maguire
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Abstract
An apparatus for coating a substrate with a diamond like coating or other vacuum depositable material comprises a chamber 11 having, or acting as, an anode, means for supporting a substrate 15 in the chamber, means for establishing a low pressure atmosphere containing a hydrocarbon-based gas in the chamber, and a radio frequency source 12 for establishing a gas plasma in the chamber, the substrate 15 acting as a cathode.
Claims13
A method for coating a substrate in the form of an elongated body with a vacuum depositable material, the method comprising supporting the substrate inside a vacuum chamber adjacent to an anode, connecting the substrate as a cathode, introducing a gas of depositable material at low pressure into the vacuum chamber, and connecting an RF source across the anode and the substrate to produce a coaxial electric field surrounding the substrate, the electric field ionising the gas to generate a corresponding plasma likewise coaxially surrounding the substrate, where the depositable material is coated on all sides of the substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.