Patent ID: 6231727
Filing Date: 2001-05-15
Classification: C23G,H01J

Abstract:
A process for continuously stripping by sputtering the surface of a substrate moving in a defined direction through a vacuum chamber past at least one counterelectrode, according to which process a plasma is created in a gas, between this counterelectrode and this surface, so as to generate radicals and/or ions which can act on the said surface to be stripped, characterized in that at least one pair of successive counterelectrodes, past which the above mentioned substrate moves, is used in the vacuum chamber and in that an alternating potential is applied to these counterelectrodes so as to impose on the latter an alternately positive and negative potential with respect to the substrate, said pair of counterelectrodes comprising a first counterelectrode and a second counterelectrode wherein, at a certain time, said first counterelectrode is positively biased and said second counterelectrode is negatively biased.