Method and apparatus for vacuum deposition of highly ionized media in an electromagnetic controlled environment
US5855686A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | May 9, 1997 |
| Grant date | Jan 5, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 9, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01J37/32761
- WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for vacuum depositing a coating onto a substrate are provided. The method includes the steps of: introducing an evaporant into a magnetically defined deposition region of a vacuum process chamber, ionizing the evaporant to form a plasma; generating a "magnetic bottle" magnetic field configuration to define the deposition region and to confine the plasma to the deposition region, further increasing the percentage ionization of the plasma to form a highly ionized media; creating a static dc electric field that is generally perpendicular to the magnetic field in the deposition region and parallel to the plane of the substrate; and then moving the substrate through the highly ionized media with the plane of the substrate and its direction of motion generally parallel to the magnetic field lines. The method of the invention is particularly suited to deposition of any atomistic evaporant onto intermediate-sized substrates.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.