Study of plasma efficiency as a function of arc current in filtered cathodic vacuum arc systems

Filtered cathodic vacuum are technology has proven to be an effective method to produce high quality hard coatings. The magnetic filter deployed in this technology is mainly to guide the ionized plasma as well as to prevent the macro-particles reaching the substrates. A filter with high plasma transmission efficiency is essential for a high deposition rate, which is the key to commercialization of the technology. Hence, an investigation has been carried out to study the plasma efficiency of the system under different are current conditions, which is discussed in this paper. The plasma efficiency tests were carried out on different off/plane double bend (OPDB) filtering systems operated under d.c. or pulse are current. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.