A substrate (22) is coated by means of a sputter cathode incorporating a rotating target carrier (2) in front of magnets (13,14). The target carrier protrudes partly into a sputtering chamber (3) for coating the substrate, and partly into a target carrier coating chamber (4) to be coated with target material. Coating of the target carrier with target material in the chamber (4) takes place by means of a source material introduced continuously from outside into this chamber. Only the coating produced is used as the target in the sputtering chamber.
