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.

A MgO layer is formed using a process flow wherein a Mg layer is deposited at a temperature <200° C. on a substrate, and then an anneal between 200° C. and 900° C., and preferably from 200° C. and 400° C., is performed so that a Mg vapor pressure >10.sup.−6 Torr is reached and a substantial portion of the Mg layer sublimes and leaves a Mg monolayer. After an oxidation between −223° C. and 900° C., a MgO monolayer is produced where the Mg:O ratio is exactly 1:1 thereby avoiding underoxidized or overoxidized states associated with film defects. The process flow may be repeated one or more times to yield a desired thickness and resistance x area value when the MgO is a tunnel barrier or Hk enhancing layer. Moreover, a doping element (M) may be added during Mg deposition to modify the conductivity and band structure in the resulting MgMO layer.

The anti-reflection film includes an anti-reflection layer composed of multilayer thin-films having different refractive indexes on one principal surface of a transparent film substrate. The moisture permeability of the anti-reflection film is 15 to 1000 g/m.sup.2.Math.24 h. The surface of the anti-reflection layer has an indentation elastic modulus of 20 to 100 GPa, and an arithmetic mean roughness Ra of 3 nm or less. The arithmetic mean roughness Ra of the surface of the anti-reflection layer is preferably 1.5 nm or less. The thin-films constituting the anti-reflection layer can be deposited by, for example, a sputtering method.

In various aspects of the disclosure, a method of operating a process group that performs at least a first reactive coating process and a second reactive coating process may comprise: coating of a substrate by means of the first reactive coating process and by means of the second reactive coating process; closed-loop control of the process group by means of a first manipulated variable of the first coating process and a second manipulated variable of the second coating process and using a correction element; wherein the correction element relates the first manipulated variable and the second manipulated variable to one another in such a way that their control values are different from one another.

A film formation apparatus includes a film formation unit which includes a film formation room having an opening at one end, has a target formed of a film formation material in the film formation room, and deposits the film formation material of the target on a surface of a workpiece facing the opening by plasma produced by a sputter gas in the film formation room, and a carrier that carries the workpiece along a predetermined carrying path so that the workpiece repeatedly pass through a facing region which faces the opening of the film formation room and a non-facing region which does not face the opening of the film formation room. The carrier includes a low-pressure position where the workpiece is placed and which causes an interior of the film formation room to be lower than a plasma ignition lower limit pressure and to be equal to or higher than a plasma electric discharge maintaining lower limit pressure when passing through the facing region, and a high-pressure position where workpiece is not placed and which causes the interior of the film formation room to be equal to or higher than the plasma ignition lower limit pressure when passing through the facing region.

A film forming method for forming a zinc oxide film on an object by ionizing oxygen, includes: setting an inflection point at which a relationship between a predetermined characteristic of the zinc oxide film and a proportion of neutral oxygen during film formation changes; determining whether to use a condition of a region where the proportion of neutral oxygen is higher than the inflection point, or to use a condition of a region where the proportion of neutral oxygen is lower than the inflection point; and performing film formation under the determined condition.

In a method for sputter depositing an additive-containing aluminium nitride film containing an additive element like Sc or Y, a first layer of the additive-containing aluminium nitride film is deposited onto a substrate disposed within a chamber by pulsed DC reactive sputtering. A second layer of the additive-containing aluminium nitride film is deposited onto the first layer by pulsed DC reactive sputtering. The second layer has the same composition as the first layer. A gas or gaseous mixture is introduced into the chamber when depositing the first layer. A gaseous mixture comprising nitrogen gas and an inert gas is introduced into the chamber when depositing the second layer. The percentage of nitrogen gas in the flow rate (in sccm) when depositing the first layer is greater than that when depositing the second layer.

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.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a multilayer film comprising aluminum, chromium, oxygen and nitrogen, in a vacuum coating chamber, the multilayer film comprising layers of type A and layers of type B deposited alternate one of each other, wherein during deposition of the multilayer film at least one target comprising aluminum and chromium is operated as cathode by means of a PVD technique and used in this manner as material source for supplying aluminum and chromium, and an oxygen gas flow and a nitrogen gas flow are introduced as reactive gases in the vacuum chamber for reacting with aluminum and chromium, thereby supplying oxygen and nitrogen for forming the multilayer film, characterized in that: The A layers are deposited as oxynitride layers of AlCrON by using nitrogen and oxygen as reactive gas at the same time, The B layers are deposited as nitride layers of AlCrN by reducing the oxygen gas flow and by increasing the nitrogen gas flow in order to use only nitrogen as reactive gas for the formation of the AlCrN layer, and wherein the relation between oxygen content and nitrogen content in the multilayer film correspond to a ratio in atomic percentage having a value between and including 1.8 and 4.

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.