Process for coating a transparent substrate with a uniform thin metallic film

摘要

Process for coating a transparent substrate with a uniform thin metallic film, whereby a masking film to screen areas not to be coated is applied, pref. by screen printing, before coating the whole masked surface with a metallic film by plasma vapour deposition and finally removing the mask, thereby leaving the metallic coating in the unmasked areas of the substrate. In each vaporising unit the metal feed wire is introduced from above a crucible into a plasma vacuum arc between an anode and associated horizontally displaced cathode in such a way that single drops melted off the wire are instantly fully vaporised and the wire feed speed and power of the vaporising unit are controlled in accordance with the measured film thickness value(s) to obtain a predetermined uniform film thickness.