The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 16, 1997
Filed:
Nov. 08, 1996
Gotz Teschner, Gelnhausen, DE;
Jurgen Bruch, Hammersbach, DE;
Balzers und Leybold, Hanau am Main, DE;
Abstract
In an apparatus for coating substrates, having sputtering cathodes (4, 5) disposed in a vacuum chamber (1), sputtering targets (6, 7), a medium-frequency generator (9) connected to the cathodes (4, 5), and a system (16) for detecting and suppressing undesired arcing, a cycle of the medium-frequency signal of the medium-frequency generator (9) is divided into a plurality of time segments, the electrical values of current and voltage for a predetermined time segment being determined so as to form a measured value signal and being entered into a ground-free meter island (16). The meter island (16) is tied as a remote station into a circular network (9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 11) whose master station is situated in the control unit (11) present in the generator (9). The blocking of the generator (9) when an arc occurs takes place through a line (19) connecting the meter island (16) to the generator (9). The parameters of the arc surveillance and the detection of measured values are preset through the network (17, 18, 19) by means of software.