Chemistry: electrical and wave energy – Apparatus – Coating – forming or etching by sputtering
Patent
1995-11-17
2000-07-18
McDonald, Rodney G.
Chemistry: electrical and wave energy
Apparatus
Coating, forming or etching by sputtering
20429807, 20429808, 20429819, 20429823, 20429825, 20429828, 118719, 118723E, 118730, 118723MP, C23C 1434
Patent
active
060902477
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention of this application relates to apparatus for the coating of substrates such as, but not exclusively, optical lens. The coating process involves the deposition of material onto the substrates and reaction of the material to form a single or multilayered coating with required properties thereon.
There are many conventional deposition apparatus which provide means whereby a material can be deposited onto a substrate to provide a desired beneficial effect thereon. One application where the use of deposition apparatus is particularly effective is with respect to the provision of anti reflective coatings on optical lens. Apparatus for this form of coating is disclosed in the applicant's co-pending Application no. WO9213114.
In this apparatus the substrates are held on a disc which is rotated relative to a number of material deposition means and reaction producing means mounted in proximity to the disc for the deposition of sputtered material onto the substrates and reaction of the same. Typically a multilayered coating is required to be provided and such a coating can be formed by the alternate operation of material deposition means each of which is formed by a magnetron, one of which contains a target of, for example, silicon and the other contains a target of, for example, titanium. With the provision of a third unbalanced magnetron this forms the reaction producing means and, if operated in oxygen, causes an oxygen plasma to be created in the vacuum chamber in which the coating takes place and the desired multilayer coating of Si O2 and Ti O2 can be achieved on a plurality of substrates.
As an alternative to mounting the substrates on a disc for rotation it is disclosed in Patent application no. EP0328257 that the substrates can be mounted on the sides of a drum such that the drum is rotatable and the magnetrons which are provided to sputter material onto the substrates are provided adjacent to the drum and lie in the vertical axis on the walls of the chamber in which the substrate carrier rotates.
This form of apparatus is an adaptation and development of the earlier disclosure by Schiller and Hartsough U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,385. The European patent application discloses the provision of deposition and reaction in long narrow axial zones with respect to the substrate drum carrier and thereby the reaction is effected by an ion source in a highly reactive longitudinal zone and physically separating this zone from the material deposition zones by means of a region of relatively low pressure. The use of selective shuttering of the deposition material magnetrons is also disclosed whereby when a magnetron is not in use the same is covered by a shutter to prevent the occurrence of any reaction with the target.
Due to the requirement to physically separate the deposition and reaction zones in this known apparatus it is necessary for the drum on which the substrates are mounted to be relatively large so that the necessary physical distance between the reaction and deposition zones can be achieved. It is also necessary to use relatively large vacuum producing means and these features cause the apparatus to be relatively bulky.
The conventional apparatus utilise DC power supplied to activate and drive the magnetrons and reaction means. The use of DC power can lead to arcing caused by the partial oxidation of the target and hence the physical separation between the magnetrons and reaction areas in conventional apparatus is required to be sufficient to discourage the occurrence of arcing. This again adds considerably to the physical size of the apparatus.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a machine for the deposition of material onto substrates in a manner which allows the size of the machine to be kept to a minimum and thereby allow the economic coating of relatively small batches of substrates.
The present invention provides apparatus for the deposition of material onto at least one substrate, said apparatus comprising a vacuum chamber, a vacuum creating means, at least a first material deposit
REFERENCES:
patent: 4724296 (1988-02-01), Morley
patent: 5169509 (1992-12-01), Latz et al.
patent: 5211759 (1993-05-01), Zimmerman et al.
patent: 5415757 (1995-05-01), Szcyrbowski et al.
J'Afer Hussein
Spencer Alarie Graham
Walls John Michael
Waugh Allen Robert
White Norman Henry
Applied Vision Limited
McDonald Rodney G.
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