Apparatus for depositing germanium and carbon onto one or more substrates comprises a vacuum chamber, at least first and second magnetron sputtering devices and at least one movable mount for supporting the one or more substrates within the vacuum chamber. The first magnetron sputtering device is configured to sputter germanium towards the at least one mount from a first sputtering target comprising germanium, thereby defining a germanium sputtering zone within the vacuum chamber. The second magnetron sputtering device is configured to sputter carbon towards the at least one mount from a second sputtering target comprising carbon, thereby defining a carbon sputtering zone within the vacuum chamber. The at least one mount and the at least first and second magnetron sputtering devices are arranged such that, when each substrate is moved through the germanium sputtering zone on the at least one movable mount, germanium is deposited on the said substrate, and when each substrate is moved through the carbon sputtering zone on the at least one movable mount, carbon is deposited on the said substrate.

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus for reducing ripple in a pulsed waveform power generation system, often for use providing power to a plasma processing chamber. A snubber can be provided between a DC power supply and a switching circuit. A buck converter can also be provided between the snubber and the switching circuit, where the buck converter takes its input from within the snubber and in particular from between a rectifying and capacitive component of the snubber. In this way, the buck converter can be isolated from the DC power supply via an input inductor on a high-input line from the DC power supply.

A method for applying a coating having at least one TiCN layer to a surface of a substrate to be coated by means of high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS), wherein, to deposit the at least one TiCN layer, at least one Ti target is used as the Ti source for producing the TiCN layer, said target being sputtered in a reactive atmosphere by means of a HIPIMS process in a coating chamber, wherein the reactive atmosphere comprises at least one inert gas, preferably argon, and at least nitrogen gas as the reactive gas, wherein: the reactive atmosphere additionally contains, as a second reactive gas, a gas containing carbon, preferably CH4, used as the source of carbon to produce the TiCN layer wherein, while depositing the TiCN layer, a bipolar bias voltage is applied to the substrate to be coated, or at least one graphite target is used as the source of carbon for producing the TiCN layer, said target being used for sputtering in the coating chamber using a HIPIMS process with the reactive atmosphere having only nitrogen gas as the reactive gas, wherein the Ti targets are preferably operated by means of a first power supply device or a first power supply unit and the graphite targets are operated with pulsed power by means of a second power supply device or a second power supply unit.

Nanoclusters are produced in a gas phase using a nanocluster manufacturing section including: a vacuum container; a sputtering source that has a target as a cathode, performs magnetron sputtering by pulse discharge, and generates plasma; a pulse power source that supplies pulsed power to the sputtering source; a first inert gas supply section that supplies a first inert gas to the sputtering source; a nanocluster growth cell that is contained in the vacuum container; and a second inert gas introduction section that introduces a second inert gas into the nanocluster growth cell. A multitude of supports are rolled in the gas phase and each of the supports is sprinkled with a multitude of nanoclusters to cause each support to support the multitude of nanoclusters.

A pulsing assembly for delivering power to a plasma reactor having a first load between a first plasma reactor input port and a plasma reactor common port and having a second load between a second plasma reactor input port and the plasma reactor common port. The pulsing assembly includes a first pulsing unit, a second pulsing unit and an energy storage component connected therebetween. The first pulsing unit includes a first input port connectable to a power source, a pulsing assembly common port connectable to the plasma reactor common port, a first output port connectable to the first load of the plasma reactor for supplying pulses between the first output port and the pulsing assembly common port. The second pulsing unit includes a second input port connectable to a power source and a second output port connectable to the second load of the plasma reactor.

A method may include providing a cavity in a surface of a substrate, the cavity comprising a sidewall portion and a lower surface; directing depositing species to the surface of the substrate, wherein the depositing species condense to form a fill material on the sidewall portion and lower surface; and directing angled ions at the cavity at a non-zero angle of incidence with respect to a perpendicular to a plane defined by the substrate, wherein the angled ions strike an exposed part of the sidewall portion and do not strike the lower surface, and wherein the cavity is filled by the fill material in a bottom-up fill process.

Power supplies, waveform function generators and methods for controlling a plasma process are described. The power supplies or waveform function generators include a component for executing the method in which a waveform shape change index is determined during a plasma process and evaluated for compliance with a predetermined tolerance.

A pulsed direct current sputtering system and method are disclosed. The system has a plasma chamber with two targets, two magnetrons and one anode, a first power source, and a second power source. The first power source is coupled to the first magnetron and the anode, and provides a cyclic first-power-source voltage with a positive potential and a negative potential during each cycle between the anode and the first magnetron. The second power source is coupled to the second magnetron and the anode, and provides a cyclic second-power-source voltage. The controller phase-synchronizes and controls the first-power-source voltage and second-power-source voltage to apply a combined anode voltage, and phase-synchronizes a first magnetron voltage with a second magnetron voltage, wherein the combined anode voltage applied to the anode has a magnitude of at least 80 percent of a magnitude of a sum of the first magnetron voltage and the second magnetron voltage.

Provided are a method and a device that can measure sputtered particles discharged by sputtering with high precision within a short time. A measuring device has a measuring section that measures a ratio between an equivalent value of the number of ion particles discharged from a target by sputtering caused by a pulsed electric discharge and an equivalent value of the number of neutral particles discharged from the target by the pulsed electric discharge. The ratio between the number of the ion particles and the number of the neutral particles discharged from the target by the sputtering can be regarded as one of factors affecting quality of a vapor-deposited film, a film growth rate and an etching rate. Thus, a factor affecting the quality of the vapor-deposited film, the film growth rate and the etching rate can be grasped and also controlled.

An electrically and magnetically enhanced ionized physical vapor deposition (I-PVD) magnetron apparatus and method is provided for sputtering material from a cathode target on a substrate, and in particular, for sputtering ceramic and diamond-like coatings. The electrically and magnetically enhanced magnetron sputtering source has unbalanced magnetic fields that couple the cathode target and additional electrode together. The additional electrode is electrically isolated from ground and connected to a power supply that can generate positive, negative, or bipolar high frequency voltages, and is preferably a radio frequency (RF) power supply. RF discharge near the additional electrode increases plasma density and a degree of ionization of sputtered material atoms.