HIGH PLASMA CURRENT-DENSITY PROCESSES WITH DIFFERENT VAPOR SOURCES

The hot filament supported high current discharge can be used with various process steps. During the heating cycle, intense electron bombardment provides a soft and efficient energy source. In triode etching the high plasma density improves the throwing power and reduces the arcing problem on oxide inclusions from preceding grinding steps. For the coating cycle the high current density can be fitted into different deposition processes. Activated reactive ion plating is done with a high voltage electron beam gun. One can also combine the high current density plasma with a magnetron to produce a high plasma density on the substrate and solve the problems of reactivity of this vapor source. Alternatively, the high current density plasma can also be used to drive a chemical vapor deposition reaction. Several of these processes can be combined in hybrid deposition technologies. A few examples of coating realizations and performance in the different processes are given.