The invention provides an apparatus for treating surfaces of a container. The apparatus comprises an openable reaction chamber housing, an exhaust escapement and an electrode assembly. The electrode assembly comprises a probe assembly coupled with a power source, the probe assembly comprising an elongate wand body, and a helically configured primary electrode and a helically configured counter electrode disposed about an outer circumferential surface of the wand body in an alternating helical configuration. The elongate wand body has a fluid passageway defined therewithin, and one or more outlet openings that are formed on an outer circumferential surface of the wand body and that extend inward through said outer circumferential surface and upto the fluid passageway. One or both of the primary electrode and the counter electrode may be energizable by the power source.

A chemical vapor deposition system for coating one or more workpieces is described herein. The deposition system includes a plurality of processing chambers which may be operated independently to increase throughput of the deposition system. Each chamber includes a modular fixture that is configured to maintain the workpieces in a predetermined arrangement which allows for a hollow cathode effect to be maintained in an Interior space of the chamber. The deposition system achieves significantly faster, higher-quality deposition and more complete, conformal coverage.

Manufacturing apparatus, systems and method of making silicon (Si) nanowires on carbon based powders, such as graphite, that may be used as anodes in lithium ion batteries are provided. In some embodiments, an inventive tumbler reactor and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system and method for growing silicon nanowires on carbon based powders in scaled up quantities to provide production scale anodes for the battery industry are described.

A sputtering system is suitable for sputtering a surface to be sputtered having sections. Each section has a projection height. The sputtering system includes a supporting plate, a sputtering array, and a controller. The sputtering array is arranged on the supporting plate. The sputtering array includes sputtering units. Each section corresponds to at least one of the sputtering units. Each sputtering unit has a driving shaft and a target. The target faces the surface to be sputtered. The controller is electrically connected the driving shaft. The driving shaft drives the target to move relative to the surface to be sputtered. The controller controls a distance between each sputtering unit and the corresponding section of the sections in the direction of the projection height to satisfy a given condition.

A collimator that is biasable is provided. The ability to bias the collimator allows control of the electric field through which the sputter species pass. In some implementations of the present disclosure, a collimator that has a high effective aspect ratio while maintaining a low aspect ratio along the periphery of the collimator of the hexagonal array of the collimator is provided. In some implementations, a collimator with a steep entry edge in the hexagonal array is provided. It has been found that use of a steep entry edge in the collimator reduces deposition overhang and clogging of the cells of the hexagonal array. These various features lead to improve film uniformity and extend the life of the collimator and process kit.

Apparatus and method for outer wall and/or inner wall coating of hollow bodies made of an electrically nonconductive material in which the hollow body is inserted into a process chamber which is divided by the hollow body into an internal and external reaction space, wherein at least one process gas is introduced into one of the two reaction spaces under a process pressure, and a plasma is generated in the reaction space and fragments and/or reaction products formed in the plasma from the at least one process gas are deposited to form a layer on the side of the wall of the hollow body that faces the plasma, the plasma being influenced with regard to at least one operating parameter by a magnetic field that permeates the two reaction spaces.

A method for plasma treating a target surface of a part, including: obtaining the target surface on the part; placing the part in a chamber of a plasma generator; evacuating the chamber to a pressure of between 10.sup.-6 and 10 mbar; injecting a suitable gas into the chamber until a pressure in the chamber of between 10.sup.-4 and 10.sup.2 mbar is reached; generating an electric current discharge within the chamber, via an electric generator, in order to generate a plasma; exposing the target surface of the part to the plasma for a predefined period of time depending on the power of the electric current discharge, on the gas injected into the chamber and on the material of the target surface, so as to deteriorate the surface condition of the target surface in order to increase the roughness thereof to make the target surface mat or more mat.

Multi-station processing tools with station-varying support features for backside processing are provided. The support features in a first station may hold a wafer at a first set of points during backside deposition, blocking backside deposition, etching, or other processing at those points. The support features in a second station may hold a wafer at a second set of points that don’t overlap with the first set of points.

Manufacturing apparatus, systems and method of making silicon (Si) nanowires on carbon based powders, such as graphite, that may be used as anodes in lithium ion batteries are provided. In some embodiments, an inventive tumbler reactor and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system and method for growing silicon nanowires on carbon based powders in scaled up quantities to provide production scale anodes for the battery industry are described.

A method of coating a non-refractory and/or non-planar substrate (8) with synthetic diamond material using a microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition (CVD) synthesis technique, the method comprising: forming a composite substrate assembly (1) comprising: a support substrate (2) comprising an upper surface; one or more electrically conductive refractory guards (6) disposed over the upper surface of the support substrate and extending to a height h.sub.g above the upper surface of the support substrate; and one or more non-refractory and/or non-planar substrates disposed over the upper surface of the support substrate and extending to a height h.sub.s above the upper surface of the support substrate, wherein the height h.sub.s is less than the height h.sub.g, wherein a difference in height h.sub.g−h.sub.s lies in a range 0.2 mm to 10 mm; placing the composite substrate assembly within a plasma chamber of a microwave plasma CVD reactor; feeding process gases into the plasma chamber including a carbon containing gas and a hydrogen containing gas; feeding microwaves in the plasma chamber to form a microwave plasma at a location over the composite substrate assembly; and growing synthetic diamond material on the one or more non-refractory and/or non-planar substrates.