Process and apparatus for reactively coating a substrate

Abstract

Abstract An apparatus for the reactive coating of a substrate 1 with an electrically insultive material, silicon dioxide SiO 2 , for example, comprises a power supply 10 connected to a cathode 5 which is disposed in an evacuable coating chamber 15, 15a and surrounds the magnets 7, 8, 9. This cathode electrically interacts with the target 3 which is sputtered and the sputtered particles thereof are deposited on the substrate 1. A process gas and a reactive gas, e.g. argon with oxygen, are introduced into the coating chamber 15, 15a. The apparatus comprises two electrodes 44, 5 which are electrically insulated from one another and from the sputtering chamber 25. The one electrode is a magnetron cathode 5 where the cathode base 11 and the material of the target 3 are electrically connected to each other and the other electrode functions as an anode 44 in the plasma discharge. Provision is made for a DC power supply 10 which has an electrically floating output and the negative pole thereof, with a throttle 45 being interposed and a resistor 46 parallel to it, is connected to cathode 5 and the positive pole thereof via line 40 to anode 44. In order to achieve a stable coating process, a first low-induction, HF-suitable capacitor 34 is inserted between cathode 5 and anode 44 and a second low-induction capacitor 35 between anode 44 and the electrically insulated vacuum chamber 25.

Inventors

• 👤 Joachim Szczyrbowski
• 👤 Stephan Roegels

Bibliographic Details