PVD—vacuum coating unit

摘要

A vacuum coating unit includes a reactive gas inlet, at least one PVD coating source with a laminar cathode and a substrate carrier containing a multiplicity of substrates. The substrate carrier forms a two dimensional horizontal extent, and the carrier is between at least two PVD coating sources. The substrates are cutting tools with at least one cutting edge in their peripheral margin region, which are distributed in a plane of the two dimensional extent of the substrate carrier. The substrate carrier is in a horizontal plane in the vacuum process chamber spaced between the laminar cathodes of the PVD coating sources and positioned such that at least a portion of each of the at least one cutting edge includes an active cutting edge and this active cutting edge is oriented opposite at least one of the cathodes of the PVD coating sources exposed at any time along a line of sight.

主权项

1. A method for simultaneous coating of a plurality of substrates (7) with a hard material layer, by means of
a vacuum process chamber (1) connected with a pumping system (2) for evacuation, at least one reactive gas inlet (12) which is connected to at least one reactive gas tank (13) for introduction of process gases, at least two PVD coating sources (8, 21) with an anode (10) and a cathode (11) with a two-dimensionally extended surface for coating the substrates (7), a substrate carrier (6) for the substrates (7), a gate (4) arranged on the vacuum process chamber (1) for loading the chamber with the substrate carrier (6), a transport device (5) for transferring the substrate carrier (6) through the gate (4) and positioning the substrate carrier in the vacuum process chamber (1) spaced in a region between the cathodes (11), and a power supply (16, 18) for operating the PVD coating sources (8, 21), the method comprising the steps of: providing the substrate carrier (6) with a two-dimensionally horizontally extended surface; and applying two-dimensionally extended flat substrates along said horizontally two-dimensionally extended surface of the substrate carrier (6) so that the normals on the two-dimensionally extended surfaces of the substrates (7) are substantially perpendicular to normals on the two-dimensionally extended surfaces of the cathodes (11).