Balzers Aktiengesellschaft

Balzers Aktiengesellschaft Fur Hochvakuumtechnik Und Dunne Schichten

Rainer Buhl

Helmut Daxinger

Eberhard Moll

Christoph Hasler

Erich Bergmann

Marcel A Lardon

Jurgen Ramm

Hans-Peter Bader

Hans Signer

Christof Peyer

A shield to limit an electric arc discharge between an anode and a cathode to a designated portion of the cathode surface is fashioned in the shape of a limiting ring with good electrically conducting surface, e.g., copper or aluminum, surrounding this surface. Application of the invention, especially with heavy current arc discharges causes the tracing point of the discharge to move stochastically back and forth on the cathode.

Method and arrangement for stabilizing an arc between an anode and a

For coating workpieces having basic bodies (3), with a ceramic, electrically non-conducting material, during the coating process a pulsating dc voltage is applied to the basic bodies (3) or their holders (36). Preferably the pulse height is changed during vaporization used for the coating process, from high negative values to smaller negative values. A further layer can be applied onto the workpieces coated in this way whereby these work-pieces, due to their excellent corrosion resistance, are suited as pieces of jewelry which can be exposed in particular to ocean water and body perspiration, as rolling bodies in which the use of oil or grease as corrosion protection can be dispensed with, and as separating and cutting tools for organic materials.

Method of producing coating using negative DC pulses with specified duty

A method and arrangement for the vacuum coating of workpieces by arc evaporation, comprises at least one evaporating cathode with a surface to be evaporated, an axis of the cathode intersecting the cathode surface. Workpieces to be coated are arranged around the axis at locations which are spaced radially outwardly and at an axial distance from the cathode surface. In order to prevent direct line of sight communication between the cathode surface and the workpieces, a visual shield is positioned between the cathode surface and the workpieces, which at least partly surrounds the axis. In this way, the ions which are evaporated from the cathode surface are deflected outwardly around the visual shield and toward the workpieces.

Method and apparatus for coating workpieces

During electric arc discharge discrete points of the cathode surface are so strongly heated that ionized cathode material is volatilized. Use of such hot spots as vapor source for vacuum coating is, however, impaired by the fact that a short time after beginning of the vapor emission from a hot spot molten material in the form of droplets is also hurled away. The invention provides continuous vapor deposition on the cathode surface with a metal compound which can be broken down, by which accelerated migration of the vapor emitting hot spots is forced in such a way that the hot spots migrate away from a particular site before spatter formation starts. The cathode surface is preferentially continuously sputtered so strongly that the metal quantity supplied to it through the metal compound is 12 to 25% of the quantity of metal carried off through vaporization from hot spots. An installation for carrying out the invention includes two cathodes which continuously coat each other in the presence of a gas forming the requisite metal compound.

Method and apparatus for vacuum vapor deposition

A process for coating substrates which has microcavities comprises coating the substrate surface under a vacuum with a predetermined substance to form a layer of the substance deposited on the surface and in the cavity. Directing subsequent layers onto the substrate with an ion bombardment so as to cause the molecular beams of the coating substance to strike the cavities at divergence angles of not greater than 10.degree..

Process and apparatus for coating microcavities

To be able to treat the inside surface of metallic tubes by means of an electric glow discharge at pressures lower than heretofore in order to heat or coat such a surface, for example, an auxiliary electrode is positioned inside an article to be treated such as a tube extending close to the tube wall and parallel to the tube axis, with the auxiliary electrode and the tube being rotatable relative to each other. The apparatus and method are primarily for coating the inside of tubes.

Apparatus for treating the inside surface of an article with an electric

A method of evaporating an evaporative substance under vacuum comprises bombarding the evaporative substance with electrons from a low voltage arc discharge established between a cathode and an anode which is located in an evaporation chamber and simultaneously supplying additional power for evaporation to the evaporative substance by means of an electron gun which produces an electron energy in excess of one keV. A device for carrying out the invention comprises an evacuable bowl, an evaporation chamber with a receptacle therein for a substance to be evaporated and means for establishing a low voltage arc discharge between a cathode and an anode located in the evaporation chamber, a further provision of an electron gun for bombarding the substance with electrons which has an electron energy more than one kilovolt.

Method and apparatus for evaporating material under vacuum using both an

A vacuum evaporator includes a housing defining a vacuum chamber which has mounting for an evaporative material and an electrode spaced from the evaporative material which is arranged adjacent the support for a substrate to be coated. A screening element is located between the electrode and the substrate support in the vacuum chamber. The vacuum chamber has a gas inlet port through which gases may be passed.

Growing community of inventors

Sargans, Switzerland

Rainer Buhl