CURRENT INDUSTRIAL PRACTICES - TECHNICAL NOTE - HIGH THROUGHPUT METAL-ION IMPLANTATION SYSTEM

A new metal-ion implantation system for scientific and industrial use has been built. Its heart is a rugged cathodic arc metal-ion source. This novel source volatilizes and ionizes atoms extracted from a solid rod (cathode) of the species to be implanted. The prototype operates at 100 kV accelerating voltage. Ions produced are substantially multiply charged - thus kinetic energies from 100 to 500 keV are obtained. The source operates at time average beam currents to 50 mA, nominally 50% of which is delivered in a uniform circular central area of 490 cm2 at a distance of 1 m from the source. This, to our knowledge, is the highest capacity metal-ion implanter in operation. Because of its simplicity the machine is relatively inexpensive to build and to operate. Computerized controls are provided. The flexibility of the new equipment makes it adaptable for basic materials research, at one extreme, and for high volume industrial applications, at the other. © 1990.