HIGH DENSITY PLASMA SOURCE

摘要

An elongate gas plasma source (3) particularly configured for use within a sputter coating apparatus, comprising a sputter target assembly (4) positioned and supported within a suitably furnished vacuum chamber (1 ) such that an essentially uniform plasma of density 1011 cm-3 or more separately generated by the plasma source is magnetically guided and confined to the vicinity of the target material (19). Negative electrical bias applied to the target material causes sputtering, thereby coating surfaces and substrates (21) within the system with a film of the target material. The elongate gas plasma source supports the use of very large dimensioned targets for large area coating applications together with the capability for plasma densities of 1012 cm-3 or more over the full target surface. At least in preferred embodiments, the gas plasma source may yield very high coating rates over large areas and may be especially suited to high throughput, large substrate and web coating processes.