Abstract
Disclosed herein is an ion guide for guiding an ion beam along an ion path, said ion guide having a longitudinal axis corresponding to said ion path, said ion guide-comprising a plurality of elongate electrodes arranged around and extending along said longitudinal axis wherein an inner envelope of the plurality of electrodes defines an ion guide volume. Said elongate electrodes are formed by electrode wires, wherein adjacent electrode wires are arranged at an inter-wire distance. The ion guide comprises holding structures for supporting and for straightening the electrode wires by applying a tension or maintaining a tension applied to them. Any portion of said holding structures which is separated from said ion guide volume by less than the local inter-wire distance is made from a material having a resistivity of less than 10.sup.12 Ohm.Math.cm, preferably of less than 10.sup.9 Ohm.Math.cm, or has a sheet resistivity of less than 10.sup.14 Ohm, preferably of less than 10.sup.10 Ohm on a surface facing said ion guide volume.
Claims
1. An ion guide for guiding an ion beam along an ion path, said ion guide having a longitudinal axis corresponding to said ion path, said ion guide comprising a plurality of elongate electrodes arranged around and extending along said longitudinal axis, wherein an inner envelope of the plurality of electrodes defines an ion guide volume, characterized in that said elongate electrodes are formed by electrode wires having a diameter of 1.0 mm or less, wherein adjacent electrode wires are arranged at an inter-wire distance, wherein said ion guide comprises holding structures for supporting and for straightening the electrode wires by applying a tension or maintaining a tension applied to the electrode wires, wherein any portion of said holding structures which is separated from said ion guide volume by less than the local inter-wire distance is made from a material having a resistivity of less than 10.sup.12 Ohm.Math.cm or has a sheet resistivity of less than 10.sup.14 Ohm on a surface facing said ion guide volume.
2. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein the number of electrode wires is 6 or more.
3. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein a portion of said holding structures which is in contact with one of said electrode wires is made from an intermediate resistivity material having an electrical resistivity of between 10.sup.2 Ohm.Math.cm and 10.sup.12 Ohm.Math.cm or has a sheet resistivity of between 10.sup.4 Ohm and 10.sup.14 Ohm on a surface facing said ion guide volume.
4. The ion guide of claim 3, wherein the intermediate resistivity material is a plastic material or a ceramic material including or mixed with conductive particles, or a ferrite based material, or wherein said sheet resistivity is obtained by coating a surface of said holding structures which is in contact with one of said electrode wires with a metal film having a thickness of 30 to 1000 nm, or with a paste containing glass and metal oxides, wherein said paste has a thickness of 5 to 1000 μm.
5. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein a portion of said holding structures which is in contact with one of said electrode wires is made from a conductive material, wherein said portion of the holding structures is further attached to an insulating carrier, or to a carrier made from said intermediate resistivity material.
6. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein said holding structures comprise at least one electrode wire fixation structure in which the ends of the electrode wires are fixed, wherein in said electrode wire fixation structure, the electrode wires are bent by at least 90°.
7. The ion guide of claim 6, wherein the electrode wires are fixed to said electrode wire fixation structure by one or more of hard or soft soldering, spot welding, bonding, casting, clamping and fixation by a fastener, in particular a screw.
8. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein said holding structures comprise a tensioning structure, suitable for establishing and/or maintaining a tension of the electrode wires, wherein said tensioning structure comprises one or more resilient elements, suitable for establishing and/or maintaining a tension of the electrode wires.
9. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein said holding structures comprise at least one electrode wire guiding structure through which the electrode wires pass.
10. The ion guide of claim 1 wherein the electrode wires are, at least in a section of the ion guide, conically diverging from the longitudinal axis, wherein the opening angle of the conical structure is more than 0.2°, and 90° or less.
11. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein the electrode wires have a diameter of 0.6 mm or less.
12. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein the ratio of the diameter of the electrode wire and the local inter-wire distance is between 0.8 and 6.0.
13. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein said electrode wires are connected to an RF driving source configured to drive adjacent two electrode wires with voltages of opposite polarity and freely adjustable radiofrequency, wherein said RF driving source is configured to drive the electrode wires with an RF square wave signal, or a superposition of RF square wave signals.
14. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein the ion guide extends through at least one separation wall separating two adjacent pumping chambers.
15. The ion guide of claim 14, wherein at least a portion of the ion guide is accommodated in a gas-tight tube, wherein each end of said gas-tight tube communicates with a corresponding one of the adjacent pumping chambers.
16. The ion guide of claim 1, wherein said ion guide is part of an ion beam deposition system, in which an ion beam is guided through a plurality of pumping chambers of decreasing pressure, wherein adjacent pumping chambers are separated by separation walls having an aperture for the ion beam to pass through.
17. A method of guiding an ion beam along an ion path using an ion guide having a longitudinal axis corresponding to said ion path, said ion guide comprising a plurality of elongate electrodes arranged around and extending along said longitudinal axis, wherein an inner envelope of the plurality of electrodes defines an ion guide volume, wherein said elongate electrodes are formed by electrode wires having a diameter of 1.0 mm or less, wherein adjacent electrode wires are arranged at an inter-wire distance, wherein said ion guide comprises holding structures for supporting and for straightening the electrode wires by applying a tension or maintaining a tension applied to the electrode wires, wherein any portion of said holding structures which is separated from said ion guide volume by less than the local inter-wire distance is made from a material having a resistivity of less than 10.sup.12 Ohm.Math.cm or has a sheet resistivity of less than 10.sup.14 Ohm on a surface facing said ion guide volume, said method further comprises a step of driving each adjacent two electrode wires with RF voltage, to thereby guide said ion beam along said ion path.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising a step of driving each adjacent two electrode wires with RF voltages of opposite polarity, wherein the method further comprises a step of adjusting the RF frequency and the voltage amplitude of the drive signal depending on the type of ions to be guided by said ion guide.
Description
SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
(1) FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an ion beam deposition system employing two electrode wire based ion guides (WIG) according to embodiments of the present invention.
(2) FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a portion of a WIG according to a first embodiment.
(3) FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a WIG according to a second embodiment.
(4) FIG. 3a is a perspective view of a slightly modified variant of the WIG of FIG. 3.
(5) FIG. 3b is a perspective view of an electrode guiding structure acting as a special gas tight tube applicable to FIG. 3.
(6) FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a WIG according to a third embodiment.
(7) FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the WIG of FIG. 4.
(8) FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the WIG of FIG. 4.
(9) FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a WIG according to a fourth embodiment.
(10) FIG. 8 is a further perspective view of the WIG of FIG. 7.
(11) FIG. 9 is a side view of the WIG of FIG. 7.
(12) FIG. 10 is an enlarged view of the tip portion of the WIG of FIG. 7.
(13) FIG. 11 is a circuit diagram showing a driving circuit for driving the electrode wires of a WIG according to various embodiments of the invention.
(14) FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of the inner envelope of electrodes defining an ion guide volume.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
(15) For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to preferred embodiments illustrated in the drawings, and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated apparatus and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur now or in the future to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.
(16) FIG. 1 shows a schematic illustration of an ion beam deposition (IBD) system 10. The IBD system 10 comprises first to fourth pumping chambers 12 to 18 separated by separation walls 20. Each of the pumping chambers 12 to 18 is connected with a corresponding vacuum pump 22. While all of the vacuum pumps are designated with the same reference sign 22, they may be of different types. On the left end of the IBD system 10, an electrospray ionization (ESI) device 24 is provided, in which molecules are ionized such as to generate the molecular ions to be used for eventual deposition on a substrate 26 located in the fourth chamber 18 at the very right of the figure. The ESI method has first been described in Malcolm Dole, L. L. Mack, R. L. Hines, R. C. Mobley, D. Furgeson, M. B Alice, Molecular Beams of Macroions, J Chem Phys 49 p. 2240 (1968). A noble prize had been awarded to John B. Feen for this method, see John B. Fenn, Electrospray Wings for Molecular Elephants (Nobel Lecture), Angew Chem Int Ed 42 p. 3871 (2003). In the ESI device 24, charged droplets of an electrolyte are drawn by a very high voltage from a needle 28 which is operated at atmospheric pressure. Each droplet includes, in addition to the charged molecules to be deposited, a large amount of unwanted solvent/carrier gas that needs to be removed by means of the pumps 22 connected to the succession of pumping chambers 12 to 18. The ions and the solvent/carrier gas are guided into the first pumping chamber 12 by means of a heated capillary 30.
(17) The first pumping chamber 12 exhibits a pressure of between 0.1 and 10 mbar. For forming an ion beam, a combined ion funnel and tunnel device 32 is employed, which extends from the first pumping chamber 12 through an aperture in the separation wall 20 into the second pumping chamber 14. The combined ion funnel and tunnel device 32 is referred to as a TWIN guide 32 herein and are described in more detail in the co-pending patent application “Partly sealed ion guide and ion beam deposition system”
(18) A first electrode wire based ion guide 36 according to an embodiment of the present invention is schematically shown, which extends from the second pumping chamber 14 through an opening in the separation wall 20 into the third pumping chamber 16. Wire based ion guides are referred to as a “wire ion guide” (WIG) herein for short. Herein, a portion of the WIG forms an aperture 34 through which neutral gas molecules can inadvertently pass from one chamber to the other, and that hence has an impact on the gas load, as explained above.
(19) In the third pumping chamber 16, a quadrupole mass separator 38 is provided, which comprises four rod electrodes 40. Finally, a further WIG 36 is provided, which extends from the third pumping chamber 16 into the fourth pumping chamber 18 through an opening in the separation wall 20, and likewise defines an aperture 34. Note that the first and second WIGs 36 are only schematically shown in FIG. 1, where the wire electrodes and corresponding holding structures can be discerned, while the more detailed structure will be described in the following with reference to FIGS. 2 to 10.
(20) FIG. 2 shows a portion of an ion guide 36 according to a first embodiment, comprising a total of 16 electrode wires 42 which are extending parallel with each other and are arranged on a circle around a longitudinal axis 44. The inner envelope of the electrode wires 42 forms an ion guide volume in a manner illustrated in FIG. 12. The purpose of the ion guide 36 is to guide ions along the longitudinal axis 44 upon passing through the ion guide. Further schematically shown in FIG. 2 is an electrode wire fixation structure 46, which is a specific embodiment of the electrode wire holding structures referred to above. The electrode wire fixation structure 46 is made from an intermediate resistivity material having an electrical resistivity of 2.Math.10.sup.6 Ohm.Math.cm, and is made from ferrite. This resistivity is low enough to avoid inadvertent charging due to scattered ions, but is at the same time sufficiently high to keep leakage current between adjacent electrode wires, which are driven with opposite phase, and hence opposite polarity, sufficiently low. Within the electrode wire fixation structure 46, an aperture 34 is formed. Herein the same reference sign 34 is used as for the aperture 34 in the separation walls 20 of FIG. 1, because in various embodiments, the fixation structure could be part of, or attached to the separation wall 20, in which case its size would govern the gas conductance, and thereby the gas load. In other words, in order to decrease the gas load, it is advantageous if the aperture 34 is as small as possible. Since the intermediate conductivity material can be brought in direct contact with the electrode wires 42, the aperture 34 can be made extremely small, while at the same time avoiding excessive leakage currents between neighboring electrode wires 42 and the risk of inadvertent charging by stray ions.
(21) As is further seen in FIG. 2, the electrode wires 42 are bent by 90° in the electrode wire fixation structure 46. The bent ends of the electrode wires 42 can then be fixed to the electrode wire fixation structure 46 by soldering, spot welding, bonding, casting, clamping, and/or fixation by means of a fastener, such as a screw (not shown in FIG. 2).
(22) A second embodiment of a WIG 36 is schematically shown in FIG. 3. The WIG 36 of FIG. 3 comprises a tensioning structure 48, which comprises two electrode wire fixation structures 46 connected by extendable rods 50, which can be extended by operating corresponding control elements 52. In the example shown, the control elements 52 are hexagonal screw drive elements which upon turning allow for adjusting the length of each rod 50, to thereby move the electrode wire fixation structures 46 away from each other and apply an appropriate tension to the electrode wires 42. In between the electrode wire fixation structures 46, an electrode wire guiding structure 54 is provided, which again comprises an aperture 34. In various embodiments, the wire guiding structure 54 could be part of, or attached to the separation wall 20 between adjacent pumping chambers. In the embodiment shown, the electrode wire guiding structure 54 is made from an intermediate resistivity material, thereby allowing it to be in direct contact with the electrode wires 42, facilitating the guiding of the electrode wires 42 and keeping the aperture 34 to a minimum size.
(23) FIG. 3a shows a closely related variant of the WIG of FIG. 3, comprising springs 53 arranged between the hexagonal screw drive elements 52 and one of the fixation structures 46, which force the two fixation structures 46 apart from each other to thereby maintain a tension among the electrode wires 42. The springs 53 are an example of the resilient members or elements mentioned in the summary of the invention, and they permit to maintain mechanical tension of the electrode wires 42 in spite of a certain degree of expansion thereof. In this embodiment the separation wall 20 and the electrode wire guiding structure 54 are distinct elements as mentioned before. Furthermore the annular holding elements 56 and 58 are inserted into the fixation structures 46. Thus the fixation structures 46 and the separation wall 20 itself can be made of simple metal, whereas the electrode wire guiding structure 54, and annular holding elements 56 and 58 have intermediate resistivity. In the present embodiment the electrode wire guiding structure 54 additionally acts as a gas-tight tube to be described later. A partially sectional view of the wire guiding structure 54 is shown in FIG. 3b.
(24) A third embodiment of a WIG 36 is shown in FIGS. 4 to 6. FIGS. 4 and 6 show two perspective views and FIG. 5 shows a sectional view of the third embodiment. The WIG 36 of the third embodiment comprises 16 electrode wires 42 arranged parallel to and on a circle around a longitudinal axis 44 (see FIG. 5). In FIGS. 4 to 6, the diameter of the electrode wires 42 is shown not to scale, for sake of clarity of the figures. In the actual embodiment, the thickness of the electrode wires 42 would be larger than shown, and in fact such that the thickness and the inter-wire distance are about the same or the thickness is higher. The WIG 36 of the third embodiment comprises a first annular holding element 56 and a second annular holding element 58 at its respective ends. Each of the first and second annular holding elements 56, 58 and the electrode wire guiding structure 54 is in direct contact with the electrode wires 42, and is made from an intermediate resistivity material of the type described above. Of the plurality of electrode wires 42, only exemplary ones are designated with reference signs for clarity purposes in the figures. The first annular holding element 56 is attached to a metal plate 60, which is in turn connected to a separation wall part 20 separating two pumping chambers by means of extendable rods 50 in a similar way as was shown in FIG. 3. By operating screw drive elements 52, the distance between the metal plate 6o and the separation wall 20 can be changed, and the tension of the electrode wires 42 can be adjusted. In an alternative embodiment (not shown), a spring-loaded variant of the type shown in FIG. 3a may be employed. The metal plate 60, the separation wall 20, and the extendable rods 50 hence form an embodiment of a tensioning structure.
(25) As is seen in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the electrode wires 42 are guided through a ring like aperture plate 58 attached to a larger opening within the separation wall 20, which is very close to the electrode wires 42, and which is consequently made from an intermediate resistivity material. The aperture plate 58 and the electrode wire guiding structure 54 hence define the aperture 34 of the separation wall 20, and in fact keeps it at a minimum, to thereby reduce the gas load. Since the opening in the separation wall 20 itself is larger, and its edge hence is sufficiently far away from the electrode wires 42, the separation wall 20 can be made from metal, as is the case in the embodiment shown. It is to be understood that the separation wall indicated at reference sign 20 in FIGS. 4 to 6 could be a part of the separation wall separating adjacent pumping chambers only. However, in a modified variant, the aperture 34 and the electrode wire guiding structure 54 could be narrower than shown, such that it radially constricts the electrode wires 42 and leads to a double cone, hourglass like shape (not shown).
(26) On the right of the separation wall 20, a gas-tight tube 62 is shown, which extends between the separation wall 20 and the second annular holding element 58. The tube 62 is sufficiently far away from the inner volume of the WIG 36, such that it is not prone to being hit and possibly charged by stray ions, and it is not in direct physical contact with the electrode wires 42 either. For this reason, there are no particular requirements for the resistivity of the material of the gas tight tube 62. In the embodiment shown, it is made from metal, because it can be manufactured easily and with high precision. The gas-tight tube 62 reduces the gas conductivity through the aperture 34 and the aperture plate 58, hence helps to reduce the gas load. In FIGS. 3 and 3a, representing the second embodiment, the task of the gas-tight tube 62 is taken over by the electrode guiding structure 54. FIG. 3b shows a sectional view of the electrode guiding structure 54 acting as a special gas-tight tube 62. The notches inside the electrode guiding structure 54 are interrupting the smooth flow of the neutral gas, leading to turbulences which reduce the gas flow between two adjacent pumping chambers and in consequence reduce the gas load.
(27) Finally, first and second annular fixation elements 64 and 66 are provided for fixing the respective ends of the electrode wires 42.
(28) The second annular holding element 58 can be regarded as part of a fixation structure that also involves the second annular fixation element 66. The annular holding element 58 has a conical end around which the electrode wires 42 are bent prior to fixation by the annular fixation element 66, to thereby provide a slim, pointed end of the ion guide 36. This pointed end is advantageous for feeding ions exiting at the right end of the WIG 36 of the third embodiment as shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 into a downstream component, such as a further WIG 36, or a mass separator such as the quadrupole mass separator 38 shown in FIG. 1. Accordingly, the third embodiment WIG 36 could be ideally used to guide ions through the separation wall 20 between the second and third pumping chambers 14, 16 shown in FIG. 1 and into the quadrupole mass separator 38.
(29) As is apparent from both, the summary of the invention and the description of FIGS. 2 to 6, the term “holding structures” generally denotes structures that are used for supporting and for straightening the electrode wires 42 by applying a tension or maintaining a tension applied to them. Such “holding structures” may comprise various substructures, such as fixation structures, which specifically serve to fix the electrode wires 42 to a part of the holding structures (e.g. the fixation structure 46 shown in FIG. 2 or 3), tensioning structures, which serve to apply a tension to the electrode wires 42 (such as the tensioning structure 48 shown in FIG. 3 to FIG. 6), or electrode wire guiding structures, which serve to guide the electrode wires and reduce the gas load, such as the electrode wire guiding structure 54 of FIGS. 3 to 6. Since the fixation structures, tensioning structures or electrode wire guiding structures are essentially functional subunits of the holding structures, there may be overlaps between the subunits, or in other words, some components may be part of several of them. For example, the fixation structures 46 of FIG. 3 are part of the tensioning structure 48 and so on.
(30) Finally, with reference to FIGS. 7 to 10, a WIG 36 according to a fourth embodiment is shown. The fourth embodiment differs from the first to third embodiments in that no intermediate resistivity material is employed. Instead, those parts of the holding structures which are in direct contact with the electrode wires 42 are made from metal, and are further attached to a carrier with intermediate resistivity or a common insulating carrier 68.
(31) More particularly, the WIG 36 according to the fourth embodiment comprises two annular insulating carriers 68 which are separated by three extendable rods 50, the length of which can again be adjusted by operation of hexagonal screw drive elements 52 for adjusting the tension of the electrode wires 42. Although not shown, the extendable rods 50 could also be biased in an extended configuration by means of a spring similar to the spring 53 shown in FIG. 3a. The electrode wires 42 extend through comparatively large openings 70 (cf. FIG. 7) within the annular insulating carriers 68, the edge of which being sufficiently far away from the inner volume of the WIG 36 such that there is no risk that the insulating carriers 68 are hit and thereby charged by stray ions.
(32) For each of the electrode wires 42, a metal element for fixing the respective end of the electrode wire 42 is provided, which is in direct contact with the respective electrode wire 42, and which is fixed to a corresponding insulating carrier 68. The individual metal elements are not in contact with each other, such as to avoid a short circuit between electrode wires 42 of different polarity.
(33) More particularly, on the left end of the of the WIG 36 as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, which is preferably the upstream end, eight first metal elements 72 are provided which have a flat surface 74 to which a respective end of the corresponding electrode wire 42 is attached. The first metal elements 72 are fixed to the same annular insulating carrier 68 by means of screws 76. Accordingly, the insulating carrier 68, the first metal elements 72 and the screws 76 in combination form a fixation structure.
(34) At the right end of the WIG 36 as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, which is the downstream end, eight second metal elements 78 are attached to the corresponding annular insulating carrier 68 by means of screws 76. The second metal elements 78 have the shape of a right-angled pyramid with a triangular base, which triangular base is attached to the insulating annular carrier 68 by means of a screw 76 (see FIG. 8). The electrode wires 42 are guided along the vertical edge of the pyramid and bent around its apex as can be seen best in FIG. 10. While not shown in the figures, a notch or the like is provided in the apex region to facilitate the guiding of the electrode wire 42. The electrode wires 42 are then attached to an outward pointing face of the second metal element 78 by means of a further screw 76. Using the pyramid shaped second metal elements 78, again a pointed end of the WIG 36 can be obtained, which facilitates the injection of ions exiting or the receiving of ions at the right end in FIGS. 8 and 9, which is preferably the downstream end, into a downstream structure, such as a mass separator of the type shown under reference sign 38 in FIG. 1. For clarity, in FIG. 7, only a single first metal element 72 and a single second metal element 78 with a corresponding electrode wire 42 are shown. Again, the annular insulating carrier 68, the second metal elements 78 and the screws 76 in combination form a fixation structure.
(35) In operation, high-frequency AC voltages are applied to the electrode wires 42 with frequencies on the order of 0.05-20 MHz and amplitudes of some 0.1-100 V. For clarity of illustration, the corresponding high-frequency driving source is omitted in FIGS. 1 to 10. An example of a suitable driving source is shown in FIG. 11. The driving source comprises a DC voltage source 104, four switches 100 and a control unit 106 for controlling the switching states of the switches 100. Between the switches 100 and the control unit 106, potential separating elements 102 are provided. The RF output voltage is supplied at terminals 108 and no. The control unit 106 controls the switches 100 to alternate between two switching states, a first switching state, in which the upper left and the lower right switch 100 are closed and the remaining switches 100 are open, and a second, opposite state, where the lower left and the upper right switch 100 are closed, and the remaining switches 100 are open. In the first switching state, the RF terminal 108 has positive voltage and the RF terminal 110 has negative voltage, while in the second switching state, the voltages are reversed. Accordingly, by alternating between the first and second switching states, under the control of the control unit 106, a square wave RF output voltage at the terminals 108, 110 is provided. Moreover, under the control of the control unit 106, the output RF frequency can be freely adjusted.
(36) While in first to fourth embodiment shown with reference to FIGS. 2 to 10 the electrode wires 42 are arranged parallel to each other and to the longitudinal axis 44 of the WIG 36, in various embodiments, the electrode wires 42 could diverge from the longitudinal axis 44 in a conical manner, as is shown in FIG. 1, although in an exaggerated manner for illustration purposes. In preferred embodiments, the opening angle of the conical structure should be limited to 90° or less, preferably to 10° or less, and most preferably to 2° or less. The WIG 36 could also have a conical and a cylindrical portion, or two conical portions with different orientations such as to yield an hourglass shape, as is the case for the WIG 36 extending through the third and fourth pumping chambers 16 and 18 in FIG. 1. For obtaining such structures, it is advantageous to employ guiding structures 54 through which the electrode wires 42 pass, wherein the electrode wires 42 are bent while passing through the guiding structure. In particular, it is advantageous to fabricate such guiding structures, which are in direct contact with the electrode wires 42 and close to the inner volume of the WIG 36, from an intermediate resistivity material.
(37) While it is the primary purpose of the ion guide 36 to confine the ions within a region close to the longitudinal axis 44, in some embodiments it is also desired to apply an electric field in longitudinal direction, in order to accelerate the ions, or to overcome a repulsive potential caused by electrode wires 42 which are conically converging in downstream direction. In some embodiments, the electrode wires 42 are therefore segmented, having conductive portions separated by intermediate portions of lower conductivity, in particular insulating portions. Then, in addition to the RF voltages, different DC voltages can be applied to different conductive portions to thereby generate an electric field along the length of the electrode wire 42, and correspondingly along the length of the WIG 36 as a whole. Instead of using segmented electrode wires, it is likewise possible that at least some of the electrode wires 42 have an electrical resistance of 0.9 Ohm mm.sup.2/m or more. Then, a DC potential gradient may be established along the length of the electrode wire 42 by applying a DC current through the respective electrode wire 42.
(38) The WIG 36 according to the embodiments shown above finds particularly favorable use in ion beam deposition (IBD) systems 10 of the type shown in FIG. 1, because they allow for establishing an unprecedented favorable compromise between high current capacity and low gas yield. Indeed, using WIG devices 36 according to embodiments of the present invention, it becomes possible to provide an IBD system 10 which allows to reduce the pressure by at least 11, and even up to 13 orders of magnitude (i.e. from atmospheric pressure to 10.sup.−11 bar, or even 10.sup.−13 bar) with only four pumping chambers 12, 14, 16 and 18. Depending on the demanded final pressure, even fewer pumping chambers could be used.
(39) Although a preferred exemplary embodiment is shown and specified in detail in the drawings and the preceding specification, these should be viewed as purely exemplary and not as limiting the invention. It is noted in this regard that only the preferred exemplary embodiment is shown and specified, and all variations and modifications should be protected that presently or in the future lie within the scope of protection of the invention as defined in the claims.
