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US 7,905,991 B2Granted
Vacuum treatment system
AssigneeOerlikon Trading AG, Trubbach
InventorsMarkus Esselbach, Martin Zaech, Orlaw Massler, Martin Grischke
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AssigneeOerlikon Trading AG, Trubbach
InventorsMarkus Esselbach, Martin Zaech, Orlaw Massler, Martin Grischke
Estimating the term…
A vacuum treatment system (1) for treating workpieces has a treatment chamber (10) that can be evacuated and in which a low-volt arc-discharge device is placed, with at least one locking loading/unloading aperture and at least one coating source placed on one side wall of the treatment chamber. It also has a device for producing a magnetic field to create a remote magnetic field and at least one workpiece holder to hold workpieces. A target-shutter arrangement (8, 8′) is designed so that when uncovered, the distance between the shutter (8) and the target (12) is less than 35 mm, thus allowing ignition and operation of a magnetron or cathode spark discharge behind the target, but preventing ignition of auxiliary plasma when the target (8) is turned off.
A vacuum treatment system (1) for treating workpieces, with a treatment chamber (10) that can be evacuated and in which a low-volt arc-discharge device is placed, at least one locking loading/unloading aperture, at least one coating source placed on one side wall of the treatment chamber, one device producing a magnetic field for creating a remote magnetic field and at least one workpiece holder for holding workpieces, characterized by the fact that at least one coating source is provided with a target-shutter arrangement (8,8′) in which, when the shutter covers the target, the distance between the shutter (8) and the target (12) is maintained to be between 5 and 30 mm substantially across an entire area where the shutter (8) and the target (12) overlap, thus permitting, on one hand, the ignition and operation of a magnetron or a cathode spark discharge behind the target and, on the other hand, preventing the ignition of an auxiliary plasma with the target (8) turned off.
A method of treating workpieces with a vacuum treatment system (1) including a treatment chamber (10) that can be evacuated and in which a low-volt arc-discharge device is placed, at least one locking loading/unloading aperture, at least one coating source placed on one side wall of the treatment chamber, one device producing a magnetic field for a remote magnetic field and at least one workpiece holder for holding workpieces, the at least one coating source includes a target-shutter arrangement (8, 8′) in which the distance between a shutter (8) and a target (12) is maintained at a distance apart substantially across an entire area where the shutter (8) and the target (12) overlap, the method comprising the step of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.