High rate deposition by vacuum arc methods

Large area coating is a very complex problem with many aspects such as deposition rate, investment costs, technological reliability, safety demands and film properties. Vapor activation has been proved to be very effective for improving the quality. Activation allows higher densification, the formation of fine grained or even amorphous structures and lowering the deposition temperature. Vacuum are evaporation is characterized for the highest degree of ionization between the industrially deposition sources just in use. A short revue of arc based activated deposition technologies will be given in the paper. Advantages and problems of arc evaporation are discussed in comparison to other PVD methods applicable for large area coating. Besides the industrially introduced dc arc evaporation new high rate are techniques and combinations with other PVD sources are described. It is shown that for large area coating besides the deposition rate itself the activation necessary for sufficient film quality must be considered. The activation must be adapted to the conditions of high rate. Are process proved to be especially suitable to meet these demands. Pulsed are techniques have a large potential as sources for high ion current applicable for ion assisted high rate deposition and for direct highly activated deposition as well. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.