Process and apparatus for plasma activated depositions in a vacuum

US7014889B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• University of Virginia Patent Foundation · US

Inventors

• James F. Groves · Charlottesville, US
• Derek D. Hass · Charlottesville, US
• Haydn N. G. Wadley · Keswick, US
• Goesta Mattausch · Ullersdorf, DE
• Henry Morgner · Dresden, DE
• Siegfried Schiller · Dresden, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: May 23, 2001
• Grant date: Mar 21, 2006
• Expiry date: Mar 14, 2022

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02T50/60
• WIPO field: Surface technology, coating
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

Plasma deposition apparatus (1) and method that allows metal or nonmetal vapor (6) to be generated by electron-beam evaporation, guides that vapor using a noble gas stream (containing reactive gases in cases of reactive evaporation), ionizes the dense directed gas and vapor stream at working pressures above about 0.0001 mbar using a hollow cathode plasma arc discharge (11), and conveys the ionized vapor and/or gas stream towards the substrate (4) for impact on the surface at energies varying from thermal levels (as low as about 0.05 eV) up to about 300 eV.