Method and apparatus for mass-producing DLC films
AssigneeNGK Insulators, Ltd.
InventorsTakao Saito, Masashi Hayakawa
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Abstract
A DLC film mass-producing apparatus 10 includes a chamber 12 connected to ground. In the chamber 12, a plurality of plate-shaped substrates 60 are disposed in parallel at regular intervals, without disposing a counter electrode that faces each of the plate-shaped substrates 60. Sputtering cleaning is then conducted by plasma discharge and an underlying contact layer is formed on each of the plate-shaped substrates 60. Subsequently, a DLC film is produced on each of the plate-shaped substrates 60 by injecting a carbon source gas into the chamber 12 such that the internal pressure of the chamber 12 reaches 0.1 to 10 Pa and applying a negative DC pulse voltage having a pulse half width of 0.1 to 3 μsec to each of the plate-shaped substrates 60 to generate plasma.
Claims9
A direct current (DC) diamond-like carbon (DLC) film mass-producing method for mass-producing DLC films on a plurality of plate-shaped substrates, comprising the steps of:
- (a) disposing the plurality of plate-shaped substrates in parallel at regular intervals, wherein the plurality of plate-shaped substrates are electrically connected and are provided without disposing a counter electrode that faces each of the plate-shaped substrates in a chamber connected to ground;
- and
- (b) injecting a carbon source gas into the chamber such that an internal pressure of the chamber reaches 0.1 to 10 Pa and simultaneously applying only a negative DC pulse voltage to each of the plate-shaped substrates to generate plasma, the negative DC pulse voltage having a pulse half width of 0.1 to 3 μsec so as to produce a DLC film on each of the plate-shaped substrates having a hardness of 14 GPa or more.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.