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:
Aug. 01, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 15, 1997
Gotz Teschner, Hanau, DE;
Joachim Szczyrbowski, Goldbach, DE;
Leybold Systems GmbH, Hanau am Main, DE;
Abstract
An apparatus is provided for coating a substrate (24) with thin layers from targets (12, 13) between which a gas discharge plasma is sustained in order to produce the ions necessary for the bombardment of the targets (12, 13) connected to alternating current. The process chamber (6) contains a gas under a specific partial pressure. The targets (12, 13) are connected to a power source in such a circuit so that they alternately form the cathode and anode of the gas discharge. The reversal of the current direction is performed through an H bridge (4) formed of four switches (16 to 19), the conductor (14) connecting the H bridge (4) to a first power source (3) being connected through a branch line (21) to a second power source which can be connected by a switch (20) to ground. All switches (19 to 20) are operated by a control circuit in a regular and variable mode, the ion energy being controlled by the level of the potential difference between the cathode and the coating and the number of ions through the duration of this potential