The present invention relates to a sputter deposition system that comprises a rotatable substrate holder for holding one or more substrates and configured to allow rotation of the one or more substrates around their own axis and around the rotation axis of the rotatable substrate holder. The present invention provides for the coating of one or more substrates at the top end of the said one or more substrates and provides a homogeneous deposition of the substrate or substrates. Further, hereby disclosed is a method for depositing a coating on one or more substrates by means of the sputter deposition system described herein.

A mask plate for fabricating a display panel and an application thereof are provided. The mask plate is configured to vapor-deposit a metal cathode layer of the display panel and includes a first blocking region and a first opening region disposed in the first blocking region, wherein a second blocking region is disposed in the first opening region, and the second blocking region is provided with a plurality of second opening regions spaced apart from each other.

Systems and methods for producing electromagnetic devices are provided. The systems and methods allow for an electromagnetic device having both a substrate (e.g., polymer) and conductive material (e.g., metal) to be manufactured without using masks or other outside objects disposed over a surface (e.g., the substrate) onto which the conductive material is deposited. In one exemplary embodiment, the method includes performing additive manufacturing using a polymer to produce a device having a plurality of interconnected walls and a plurality of frequency selective surface elements, and then coating portions of the device with a conductive material. A plurality of shadowing features are formed as part of one or more of the walls to protect the frequency selective surface elements from being coated by the conductive material. Other methods, and a variety of systems that can result from the disclosed methods, are also provided.

The invention relates to an apparatus for the vapor deposition of a coating on optical articles, comprising a distribution mask (32) for controlling the vapor deposition of a coating on optical articles that is positioned in the path of some of the molecules emitted by said emitting source in the direction of the rotatable support for optical articles. The distribution mask (32) is fitted with at least one arm (34) positioned so as to mask at least one partial zone (16) of an individual housing (28) on a portion of the revolution turn, this masked partial zone (16) comprising the center of the individual housing (28).

Methods and apparatus for filling features on a substrate are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of filling features on a substrate includes: depositing a first metallic material on the substrate and within a feature disposed in the substrate in a first process chamber via a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process at a first temperature; depositing a second metallic material on the first metallic material in a second process chamber at a second temperature and at a first bias power to form a seed layer of the second metallic material; etching the seed layer in the second process chamber at a second bias power greater than the first bias power to form an intermix layer within the feature comprising the first metallic material and the second metallic material; and heating the substrate to a third temperature greater than the second temperature, causing a reflow of the second metallic material.

A magnetron sputtering system includes a substrate mounted within a vacuum chamber. A plurality of cathode assemblies includes a first set of cathode assemblies and a second set of cathode assemblies, and is configured for reactive sputtering. Each cathode assembly includes a target comprising sputterable material and has an at least partially exposed planar sputtering surface. A target support is configured to support the target in the vacuum chamber and rotate the target relative to the vacuum chamber about a target axis. A magnetic field source includes a magnet array. A cathode assemblies controller assembly is operative to actuate the first set of cathode assemblies without actuating the second set of cathode assemblies, and to actuate the second set of cathode assemblies without actuating the first set of cathode assemblies.

In a method of manufacturing a one-dimensionally varying optical filter, a substrate is coated to form a stack of layers of two or more different types. The coating may, for example, employ sputtering, electron-beam evaporation, or thermal evaporation. During the coating, the time-averaged deposition rate is varied along an optical gradient direction by generating reciprocation between a shadow mask and the substrate in a reciprocation direction that is transverse to the optical gradient direction. In some approaches, the shadow mask is periodic with a mask period defined along the direction of reciprocation, and the generated reciprocation has a stroke equal to or greater than the mask period along the direction of reciprocation. The substrate and the shadow mask may also be rotated together as a unit during the coating. Also disclosed are one-dimensionally varying optical filters, such as linear variable filters, made by such methods.

Provided in the present disclosure are a coating method and a film layer thereof, and a coating chucking appliance and an application thereof. The coating method comprises the steps of: forming a normal film layer on a first component on a substrate surface, and forming at least a thinner film layer on a second component on the substrate surface, wherein the thickness of the normal film layer is greater than the thickness of the thinner film layer. The coating method can prepare a thinner film layer on the surface of some portions or parts on the substrate surface, and prepare a thicker film layer on the surface of other portions or parts, thereby satisfying the requirements of coating a thinner film layer on some electronic components of the substrate, such as circuit interface components, ensuring data transmission performance.

A device and a method for manufacturing a thin film are provided. The device includes: a chamber; a substrate carrying member arranged within the chamber and configured to carry thereon a substrate on which the thin film is to be formed; a mask fixation member configured to fix a mask, wherein the mask includes a shielding region and an opening region, and a material for forming the thin film is allowed to pass through the opening region; and a position adjustment member configured to adjust a distance between the mask and the substrate to form the thin films of different sizes on the substrate, wherein orthogonal projections of the thin films of different sizes onto the substrate have different areas.

According to the invention, a device is provided for coating substrates having planar or shaped surfaces by means of magnetron sputtering, by means of which device surfaces having any shape, for examples lenses, aspheres or freeform surfaces which have an adjustable layer-thickness profile, can be coated such that a layer function is maintained on the substantially complete surface. A method for coating substrates having planar or shaped surfaces by means of magnetron sputtering is also provided.