A method of controlling a reactive deposition process and a corresponding assembly and/or apparatus are described. The method includes providing power to a cathode with a power supply, providing a voltage set point to the power supply, receiving a power value correlating the power provided to the cathode, and controlling a flow of a process gas in dependence of the power value to provide a closed loop control for the power value.

A reactive particles supply system that may include an adjustable gas supply unit that is arranged to supply gas and to set a gas condition, a reactive particles supply unit that may be arranged to receive the gas, and an adjustable reactive particles output unit that may include a reactive particles input, a second reactive particles output, and a reactive particles path. The second reactive particles output is configured to output reactive particles towards an opening of a vacuumed chamber. The adjustable reactive particles output unit is arranged to mechanically configure at least one element of the reactive particles path according to the reactive particles condition.

A sputtering target for an insulating oxide film, the sputtering target including a sintered body including a lanthanum oxide and at least one selected from the group consisting of a beryllium oxide, a magnesium oxide, a calcium oxide, a strontium oxide, and a barium oxide, wherein lanthanum has highest molar ratio among elements other than oxygen contained in the sintered body.

A structure including a metal nitride layer is formed on a workpiece by pre-conditioning a chamber that includes a metal target by flowing nitrogen gas and an inert gas at a first flow rate ratio into the chamber and igniting a plasma in the chamber before placing the workpiece in the chamber, evacuating the chamber after the preconditioning, placing the workpiece on a workpiece support in the chamber after the preconditioning, and performing physical vapor deposition of a metal nitride layer on the workpiece in the chamber by flowing nitrogen gas and the inert gas at a second flow rate ratio into the chamber and igniting a plasma in the chamber. The second flow rate ratio is less than the first flow rate ratio.

A coated article includes a substrate with a first surface and a second surface and a functional coating applied over the first surface or the second surface. The functional coating includes a blocking layer over at least a portion of the substrate; a metallic layer over at least a portion of the blocking layer; and a top layer over at least a portion of the metallic layer. The coated article has an optical color shift, as measured by ΔEcmc, of no more than 4.5 after tempering.

In a preliminary deposition for producing an optical film in which multilayered optical thin-film is formed on a film substrate, a plurality of sputtering chambers are simultaneously energized to deposit a stacked body of thin-films made of two or more different materials on the film substrate, and the thicknesses of the plurality of thin-films are calculated from the optical properties obtained by the optical measuring unit (80) equipped in a sputtering apparatus. Measurement of the thicknesses and adjusting the deposition conditions for thin-films are repeated until the optical properties obtained by the optical measurement unit or the thickness of the respective thin-films calculated from the optical properties falls within a prescribed range.

A sputtering device includes: a vacuum chamber in which a target material and a substrate are disposable in a manner of facing each other; a DC power supply being electrically connectable to the target material; a gas supply source configured to introduce a film forming gas containing a nitrogen gas into the vacuum chamber; and a pulsing unit configured to pulse a current flowing from the DC power supply to the target material. The sputtering device forms a nitride thin film having a ternary or more composition containing nitrogen on the substrate by generating plasma in the vacuum chamber using a sintered alloy target material having a binary or more composition as the target material.

A vacuum pump system comprises: a vacuum pump including a suction port, an exhaust port, and a pressure detection section configured to detect a gas pressure in a gas flow path through which gas sucked through the suction port flows to the exhaust port; and an arithmetic device configured to perform arithmetic processing for a state of a deposition substance in the gas flow path based on the gas pressure detected by the pressure detection section.

A physical vapor deposition system includes a chamber, three target supports to targets, a movable shield positioned having an opening therethrough, a workpiece support to hold a workpiece in the chamber, a gas supply to deliver nitrogen gas and an inert gas to the chamber, a power source, and a controller. The controller is configured to move the shield to position the opening adjacent each target in turn, and at each target cause the power source to apply power sufficient to ignite a plasma in the chamber to cause deposition of a buffer layer, a device layer of a first material that is a metal nitride suitable for use as a superconductor at temperatures above 8° K on the buffer layer, and a capping layer, respectively.

There is disclosed apparatus and processes for the uniform controlled growth of materials on a substrate which direct a plurality of pulsed flows of a precursor into a reaction space of a reactor to deposit the thin film on the substrate. Each pulsed flow is a combination of a first pulsed subflow and a second pulsed subflow, wherein a pulse profile of the second pulsed subflow overlaps at least a portion of a latter half of a pulse profile of the first pulsed subflow.