Coating processes – Direct application of electrical – magnetic – wave – or... – Ion plating or implantation
Patent
1996-10-11
1998-12-08
Pianalto, Bernard
Coating processes
Direct application of electrical, magnetic, wave, or...
Ion plating or implantation
427 58, 4272551, 427294, 427570, 427576, 427585, 427598, C23C 1408
Patent
active
058466088
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application claims the priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119 of German Patent Application No. P 44 12 906.8 filed on Apr. 14, 1994.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process and the affiliated device for ion-supported vacuum coating of electrically conductive or electrically insulating substrates with electrically insulating coatings and of electrically insulating substrates with electrically conductive coatings. A preferred application field is the ion-supported vacuum coating of plastic sheets with electrically insulating oxide coatings. The depositing of abrasion protection coatings and corrosion protection coatings as well as barrier coatings for packaging purposes is of particular significance.
2. Discussion of Background Information
It is known that ion-supported vacuum coating can produce a higher packing density and therefore a greater hardness and improved barrier properties of the growing coating.
One variant of ion-supported vacuum coating is comprised in disposing an ion source in the coating chamber in addition to the coating source so that the substrate is struck by the atoms or molecules of the coating material at the same time as being struck by inert case ions or reactive gas ions. As a result of the ion bombardment, loose coating components are removed from the coating surface or moved to positions that are more favorable from an energy standpoint by means of impact processes. When depositing coatings made of chemical compounds, e.g. oxides, bombardment with reactive gases, e.g. with oxygen ions, can improve the stoichiometry of the coatings in addition to the packing density. When coating electrically insulating substrates or when depositing electrically insulating coatings, it is necessary to neutralize the ion beam by adding electrons so that the coating does not become electrically charged. To this end, the ion sources are equipped with suitable neutralizing agents.
The previously available ion sources are unsuitable for ion-supported coating with high coating rates of the kind required for example for coating plastic sheets or metal band in band coating devices. On the one hand, the high ion flows adapted to the high coating rates cannot be produced at a justifiable expense. On the other hand, the maintenance-free service life of the ion sources does not correspond to the requirements of industrial application because of the high vapor densities and the attendant high soiling rates.
It is also known to realize the ion-supported coating without using separate ion sources in order to prevent these disadvantages. To this end, ions are produced between the coating source and the substrate by various means and are accelerated at the substrate by applying a negative bias voltage to it. The production of ions can be carried out by a self-maintained or non-self-maintained glow discharge, an arc discharge, or--when coating by means of high-rate atomizing--a magnetron discharge. The acceleration of ions onto the substrate by means of applying a negative bias voltage, though, is only possible when depositing electrically conductive coatings on electrically conductive substrates Dusseldorf, 1993, p. 33).
It is known that insulating substrates or insulating coatings charge by themselves to a slight negative bias voltage on the order of -10 V when a high-density plasma is produced in the immediate vicinity of the substrate surface. This so-called self bias voltage and the resultant ion energies, though, are too slight to produce the desired structural improvement and in particular, the increased packing density of the deposited coating.
When coating insulating substrates or when depositing insulating coatings, it is furthermore known to increase this self bias voltage by virtue of the fact that a high-frequency electrical alternating field is brought into effect perpendicular to the substrate surface. Above the so-called cutoff frequency, which is situated at a few megahertz depending upon the geom
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Fietzke Fred
Goedicke Klaus
Milde Falk
Morgner Henry
Neumann Manfred
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Forderung Der Angewandten Forschung
Pianalto Bernard
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