Physical vapor deposition methods for reducing the particulates deposited on the substrate are disclosed. The pressure during sputtering can be increased to cause agglomeration of the particulates formed in the plasma. The agglomerated particulates can be moved to an outer portion of the process chamber prior to extinguishing the plasma so that the agglomerates fall harmlessly outside of the diameter of the substrate.

A system and method are described for depositing a material onto a receiving surface, where the material is formed by use of a plasma to modify a source material in-transit to the receiving surface. The system comprises a microwave generator electronics stage. The system further includes a microwave applicator stage including a cavity resonator structure. The cavity resonator structure includes an outer conductor, an inner conductor, and a resonator cavity interposed between the outer conductor and the inner conductor. The system also includes a multi-component flow assembly including a laminar flow nozzle providing a shield gas, a zonal flow nozzle providing a functional process gas, and a source material flow nozzle configured to deliver the source material. The source material flow nozzle and zonal flow nozzle facilitate a reaction between the source material and the functional process gas within a plasma region.

The invention relates to a method and a device to for applying a layer 64 to a body 60, 62, and to a coated body 60. The body 60, 62 is disposed in a vacuum chamber 12 and process gas is supplied. A plasma is generated in the vacuum chamber 12 by operating a cathode 30 by applying a cathode voltage V.sub.P with cathode pulses and by sputtering a target 32. A bias voltage V.sub.B is applied to the body 60, 62 so that charge carriers of the plasma are accelerated into the direction of the body 60, 62 and attached to its surface. In order to achieve favorable properties of the coating 64 in a controlled way, the time course of the bias voltage V.sub.B is varied during the coating duration D. In the coating 64 of the body 60, 62, the material of the layer 64 comprises proportions of a noble gas, the concentration of which in the layer 64 varies over the layer thickness.

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus for waveform control, comprising: a power supply having an input terminal, and at least one output terminal for coupling to a load; a controller; a variable inductor coupled to at least one of the output terminals, the variable inductor comprising a first magnetic core having a plurality of arms, including at least a first inductor arm and a first control arm, wherein an inductance winding having one or more turns is wound around the first inductor arm, and wherein a first control winding comprising one or more turns is wound around the first control arm; and a DC current source coupled to the first control arm and the controller, the controller configured to adjust a DC bias applied by the DC current source to the first control arm to control an output waveform at the at least one output terminal.

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.

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.

Some embodiments may include a nanosecond pulser comprising a plurality of solid state switches; a transformer having a stray inductance, L.sub.s, a stray capacitance, C.sub.s, and a turn ratio n; and a resistor with a resistance, R, in series between the transformer and the switches. In some embodiments, the resonant circuit produces a Q factor according to $Q=\frac{1}{R}\sqrt{\frac{L_s}{C_s}};$
and the nanosecond pulser produces an output voltage V.sub.out from an input voltage V.sub.in, according to V.sub.out=QnV.sub.in.

A method and apparatus are for controlling stress variation in a material layer formed via pulsed DC physical vapour deposition. The method includes the steps of providing a chamber having a target from which the material layer is formed and a substrate upon which the material layer is formable, and subsequently introducing a gas within the chamber. The method further includes generating a plasma within the chamber and applying a first magnetic field proximate the target to substantially localise the plasma adjacent the target. An RF bias is applied to the substrate to attract gas ions from the plasma toward the substrate and a second magnetic field is applied proximate the substrate to steer gas ions from the plasma to selective regions upon the material layer formed on the substrate.

The present invention relates to a method of coating one or more metal components of a fuel cell stack, such as a bipolar plate, an electrode, gaskets etc., the method comprising the steps of providing an uncoated metal component; etching said uncoated metal component; optionally depositing an adhesion layer on the etched uncoated metal component; and depositing a carbon coating on either the adhesion layer or on the etched uncoated metal component, with the adhesion layer and the carbon coating respectively being deposited by means of one of a physical vapor deposition process, an arc ion plating process, a sputtering process, and a Hipims process. The invention further relates to a component of a fuel cell stack and to an apparatus for coating one or more components of a fuel cell stack.

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.