A coated substrate comprising a metal or metal alloy such as a high speed steel, TiAl based alloy or Ni based alloy or an electrically conductive ceramic material, wherein the coating comprises a hard material protective coating comprising alternating layers of different compositions, wherein a first composition of the alternating layers comprises silicon, Si, and/or a second composition of the alternating layers comprises boron, B.

A method for coating substrates with a decorative layer of hard material which is guided into a vacuum coating chamber. The decorative layer of hard material is deposited by a reactive HIPIMS-process, and the energy content in the power pulses is controlled in such a manner that the deposited layer of hard material has a homogeneous colour, a high degree of smoothness and a high strength.

A method of depositing a film on a substrate is provided. The method includes positioning the substrate on a substrate support in a chamber and depositing the film on the substrate using a DC magnetron sputtering process in which an electrical bias signal causes ions to bombard the substrate. The substrate support includes a central region surrounded by an edge region, the central region being raised with respect to the edge region, and the substrate is positioned on the central region so that a portion of the substrate overlays the edge region and is spaced apart therefrom.

A sputtering apparatus has a vacuum chamber capable of arranging a target material and a substrate therein so as to face each other, a DC power supply capable of electrically being connected to the target material, and a pulsing unit pulsing electric current flowing in the target material from the DC power supply, in which plasma is generated in the vacuum chamber to form a thin film on the substrate, including an ammeter measuring electric current flowing in the pulsing unit from the DC power supply, a power supply controller performing feedback control of the DC power supply so that a current value measured by the ammeter becomes a prescribed value and a pulse controller indicating a pulse cycle shifted from a control cycle of the DC power supply by the power supply controller to the pulsing unit.

An electrical power pulse generator system and a method of the system's operation are described herein. A main energy storage capacitor supplies a negative DC power and a kick energy storage capacitor supplies a positive DC power. A main pulse power transistor is interposed between the main energy storage capacitor and an output pulse rail and includes a main power transmission control input for controlling power transmission from the main energy storage capacitor to the output pulse rail. A positive kick pulse power transistor is interposed between the kick energy storage capacitor and the output pulse rail and includes a kick power transmission control input for controlling power transmission from the kick energy storage capacitor to the output pulse rail. A positive kick pulse power transistor control line is connected to the kick power transmission control input of the positive kick pulse transistor.

The sputtering cathode has a tubular shape having a pair of long sides facing each other in cross-sectional shape, has a sputtering target whose erosion surface faces inward, and a magnetic circuit is provided along the sputtering target. The pair of long sides are constituted by rotary targets each having a cylindrical shape. The rotary target is internally provided with a magnetic circuit and configured to allow the flow of cooling water. The magnetic circuit is provided parallel to the central axis of the rotary target and has a rectangular cross-sectional shape having a long side perpendicular to the radial direction of the rotary target.

The sputtering cathode has a tubular shape having a pair of long sides facing each other in cross-sectional shape, has a sputtering target whose erosion surface faces inward, and a magnetic circuit is provided along the sputtering target. The pair of long sides are constituted by rotary targets each having a cylindrical shape. The rotary target is internally provided with a magnetic circuit and configured to allow the flow of cooling water. The magnetic circuit is provided parallel to the central axis of the rotary target and has a rectangular cross-sectional shape having a long side perpendicular to the radial direction of the rotary target.

A coated cutting tool including a substrate and a single layer or multi-layer hard material coating is provided. The substrate is selected from cemented carbide, cermet, ceramics, cubic boron nitride (cBN), polycrystalline diamond, steel or high-speed steel. The hard material coating includes at least one layer of gamma-Al.sub.2O.sub.3, exhibiting particularly high hardness and reduced Young's modulus. The gamma-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 layer of the coated cutting tool is obtainable by means of a reactive magnetron sputtering process using at least one Al target, wherein the deposition is carried out using a reaction gas composition of argon (Ar) and oxygen (O.sub.2) at a total reaction gas pressure within the range from at least 1 Pa to at most 5 Pa, at an O.sub.2 partial pressure within the range from 0.001 Pa to 0.1 Pa, and at a temperature within the range from 400° C. to 600° C.

Provided herein are approaches for in-situ plasma cleaning of ion beam optics. In one approach, a system includes a component (e.g., a beam-line component) of an ion implanter processing chamber. The system further includes a power supply for supplying a first voltage and first current to the component during a processing mode and a second voltage and second current to the component during a cleaning mode. The second voltage and current are applied to one or more conductive beam optics of the component, individually, to selectively generate plasma around one or more of the one or more conductive beam optics. The system may further include a flow controller for adjusting an injection rate of an etchant gas supplied to the beam-line component, and a vacuum pump for adjusting pressure of an environment of the beam-line component.

A sputtering system and method are disclosed. The system includes a first power source that is configured to apply a first voltage at a first electrode that alternates between positive and negative relative to a second electrode during each of multiple cycles. A second power source is coupled to a third electrode and the second electrode, and the second power source is configured to apply a second voltage to the third electrode that alternates between positive and negative relative to the second electrode during each of the multiple cycles. A controller is configured to control the first power source and the second power source to phase-synchronize the first voltage with the second voltage, so both, the first voltage and the second voltage, are simultaneously negative during a portion of each cycle and simultaneously positive relative to the second electrode during another portion of each cycle.