A deposition system comprises a vacuum chamber having a cylindrical inner wall, a cylindrical parts carousel disposed concentrically inside the cylindrical inner wall of the vacuum chamber, and one or more deposition sources arranged to flow deposition material onto the cylindrical parts carousel. A cylindrical shutter assembly is disposed concentrically inside the cylindrical inner wall of the vacuum chamber, and has (1) a shuttered position in which the cylindrical shutter assembly blocks the one or more deposition sources from depositing onto the parts carousel and (2) an unshuttered position in which the cylindrical shutter assembly does not block the one or more deposition sources from depositing onto the parts carousel. A drive train rotates the cylindrical shutter assembly between the shuttered and unshuttered positions. The drive train not operatively connected to rotate the cylindrical parts carousel. The deposition sources may include inner and outer sputter sources.

A method of plasma etching one or more features in a silicon substrate includes performing a main etch using a cyclical etch process in which a deposition step and an etch step are alternately repeated, and performing an over etch to complete the plasma etching of the features. The over etch includes one or more etch steps of a first kind and one or more etch steps of a second kind, each of the etch steps of the first and second kind include etching by ion bombardment of the silicon substrate. The ion bombardment during the one or more etch steps of the second kind has an inward inclination with respect to ion bombardment during the one or more etch steps of the first kind.

To provide an electronic component having a protective film formed with good uniformity, over the entire surface thereof. The electronic component has a protective film formed over the entire surface thereof, and the electronic component has elements and wirings formed on a base body. The protective film is formed by a CVD method, over an entire surface of the electronic component, by: arranging an electrode in a chamber; grounding one side of the chamber and the electrode; accommodating the electronic component in the chamber; supplying a raw material gas to the chamber; rotating or swinging the chamber and thereby moving the electronic component in the chamber; supplying high-frequency power to the other side of the chamber and the electrode; and generating a raw-material-gas-based plasma between the electrode and the chamber.

An apparatus for depositing a metal film on a surface of a three-dimensional object, includes a mounting drum rotatably disposed inside a chamber and having a circumferential surface onto which a plurality of three-dimensional objects is settled and mounted making each surface thereof to be subjected to deposition be exposed to an outside; and at least one source target depositing a metal film onto the surface of the three-dimensional object mounted to the mounting drum by sputtering.

A treatment device for treating a lens included in an operational device, is disclosed. The Device may include a first segmented electrode, comprising at least two segments electrically isolated from one another, located in proximity to a first surface of the lens, wherein the first surface is to be treated by the treatment device; at least one second electrode; a distributor electrically associated with the first segmented electrode and with the at least one second electrode, and configured to distribute RF energy from a single RF generator to each of the segments of the segmented electrode separately; an RF generator for separately providing RF energy to the segments of the at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode in an amount sufficient to generate plasma on at least a portion of the first surface of the lens, and a controller functionally associated with the distributor.

A method for producing a microlens according to the present invention includes an etching step and a surface treatment step. In the etching step, a target object which is obtained by forming a second organic film having a lens shape on a first organic film that is formed on a substrate is subjected to etching that uses a plasma of a first processing gas, while using the second organic film as a mask, so that the first organic film is etched so as to transfer the lens shape of the second organic film to the first organic film, thereby forming a microlens in the first organic film. In the surface treatment step, a surface treatment is performed so as to smooth the surface of the microlens that is formed in the first organic film.

Methods and systems for depositing a thin film are disclosed. The methods and systems can be used to deposit a film having a uniform thickness on a substrate surface that has a non-planar three-dimensional geometry, such as a curved surface. The methods involve the use of a deposition source that has a shape in accordance with the non-planar three-dimensional geometry of the substrate surface. In some embodiments, multiple layers of films are deposited onto each other forming multi-layered coatings. In some embodiments, the multi-layered coatings are antireflective (AR) coatings for windows or lenses.

A method may include providing a surface feature on a substrate, the surface feature comprising a feature shape a feature location, and a dimension along a first direction within a substrate plane; depositing a layer comprising a layer material on the surface feature; and directing ions in an ion exposure at an angle of incidence toward the substrate, the angle of incidence forming a non-zero angle with respect to a perpendicular to the substrate plane, wherein the ion exposure comprises the ions and reactive neutral species, the ion exposure reactively etching the layer material, wherein the ions impact a first portion of the surface feature and do not impact a second portion of the surface feature, and wherein an altered surface feature is generated, the altered surface feature differing from the surface feature in at least one of: the dimension along the first direction, the feature shape, or the feature location.

A lower electrode plate receives radiofrequency power. A first upper plate is positioned parallel to and spaced apart from the lower electrode plate. A grounded second upper plate is positioned next to the first upper plate. A dielectric support provides support of a workpiece within a region between the lower electrode plate and the first upper plate. A purge gas is supplied at a central location of the first upper plate. A process gas is supplied to a periphery of the first upper plate. The dielectric support positions the workpiece proximate and parallel to the first upper plate, such that the purge gas flows over a top surface of the workpiece so as to prevent the process gas from flowing over the top surface of the workpiece, and so as to cause the process gas to flow around a peripheral edge of the workpiece and below the workpiece.

The present disclosure describes material surface treatment systems and methods for grafting a coded substance (e.g., a molecular code) to a material through a surface treatment process. In some examples, the material is subjected to a plasma discharge containing the molecular code, which is grafted onto the material at the molecular level thereby having little or no impact on the properties of the treated material.