Provided is an optical film (a composite tungsten oxide film containing cesium, tungsten, and oxygen), a sputtering target, and a method of producing a film by which film formation conditions can be easily obtained. An optical film of the present invention has transmissivity in a visible wavelength band, has absorbance in a near-infrared wavelength band, and has radio wave transparency, and is characterized in that the optical film comprises cesium, tungsten, and oxygen, in which a refractive index n and an extinction coefficient k of the optical film at each of 300 nm and wavelengths [400 nm, 600 nm, . . . , 2400 nm] specified at 200 nm intervals in a wavelength region from 400 nm to 2400 nm are set within a range between n-max and n-min made by graphing the maximum value and the minimum value of the refractive index in a wavelength dispersion graph of optical constants shown in FIG. 1 and within a range between k-max and k-min made by graphing the maximum value and the minimum value of the extinction coefficient in the above wavelength dispersion graph of optical constants.

A coated body having a substrate and a wear-resistant coating applied to the substrate by physical vapor deposition, the coating comprising a main layer applied to the substrate in a thickness of 1 to 10 pm, wherein said main layer is formed from a nitride of aluminum and at least one other metal from the group consisting of Ti, Cr, Si, Zr and combinations thereof; and a cover layer adjacent to the main layer at a thickness of 0.1 to 5 ?m, wherein the cover layer comprises at least one alternating layer consisting of an oxynitride layer and a nitride layer arranged over the oxynitride layer, wherein the oxynitride layer is formed from an oxynitride of aluminum and optionally further metals from the group consisting of chromium, hafnium, zirconium, yttrium, silicon and combinations thereof, and the nitride layer is formed from a nitride of aluminum and at least one other metal from the group consisting of Ti, Cr, Si, Zr and combinations thereof.

Methods for depositing an EUV hardmask film on a substrate by physical vapor deposition which allow for reduced EUV dose. Certain embodiments relate to metal oxide hardmasks which require smaller amounts of EUV energy for processing and allow for higher throughput. A silicon or metal target can be sputtered onto a substrate in the presence of an oxygen and or doping gas containing plasma.

A sputtering system and method are disclosed. The system has at least one dual magnetron pair having a first magnetron and a second magnetron, each magnetron configured to support target material. The system also has a DMS component having a DC power source in connection with switching components and voltage sensors. The DMS component is configured to independently control an application of power to each of the magnetrons, and to provide measurements of voltages at each of the magnetrons. The system also has one or more actuators configured to control the voltages at each of the magnetrons using the measurements provided by the DMS component. The DMS component and the one or more actuators are configured to balance the consumption of the target material by controlling the power and the voltage applied to each of the magnetrons, in response to the measurements of voltages at each of the magnetrons.

This disclosure provides a method for preparing a CIGS thin film solar cell, including placing a substrate formed with a barrier layer into a sputtering chamber, and forming a doping layer on the barrier layer by sputtering, wherein the doping layer is sodium doped a hetero-molybdenum layer; detecting sodium ion content, and introducing water vapor into the sputtering chamber according to the sodium ion content when the doping layer is formed by sputtering. The method for preparing the CIGS thin film solar cell of the present disclosure introduces water vapor into the sputtering chamber according to the content of sodium ions. The water vapor may ensure the stability after sodium ion sputtering, and the content of water vapor is adjusted according to the sodium ion content.

A film forming apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a chamber; an exhaust unit configured to reduce the pressure in the chamber to a predetermined vacuum level; a holder disposed in the chamber and configured to hold a film forming target member on which a film is to be formed; a supply unit configured to supply a film forming material containing silicon to a surface of the film forming target member; and a heat source configured to perform heating at the predetermined vacuum level to melt the supplied film forming material.

An apparatus includes a chamber, a reactive gas supply unit, an inert gas supply unit, a power source, a light reception unit, and a control unit configured to control at least one of a flow rate of the reactive gas and a flow rate of inert gas in such a manner that an intensity of the light approaches a target light intensity with use of a predetermined function in which an output of the power source in a compound mode and an output of the power source in a transition mode, and a film formation speed are associated with each other.

A method of adjusting a process gas flow of a vacuum coating equipment includes: obtaining a flow set value of a process gas, and selecting a reference gas; determining a flow coefficient of the process gas relative to the reference gas; calculating a corrected flow value of the process gas according to the flow set value and the flow coefficient of the process gas; judging whether the corrected flow value of the process gas is greater than a maximum value in a range of a gas flowmeter for controlling the process gas flow, if a judgment result is yes, alarming an over range, and executing the process program with the maximum value in the range of the gas flowmeter as the flow control value of the process gas, if the judgment result is no, taking the corrected flow value as the flow control value of the process gas.

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 film formation apparatus includes a chamber that is a sealed container in which a target formed of a film formation material is placed, and into which the workpiece is carried, a gas discharging unit discharging a gas in the sealed container for a predetermined time period after the workpiece is carried into the chamber to obtain a base pressure, and a sputter gas introducing unit introducing a sputter gas containing oxygen to the interior of the chamber having undergone the discharging and becoming the base pressure. The sputter gas introducing unit decreases an oxygen partial pressure in the sputter gas to be introduced in the chamber in accordance with an increase in the base pressure due to an increase of the film formation material sticking to the interior of the chamber.