Patent ID: 6086962
Filing Date: 2000-07-11
Classification: C23C,G11B,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of depositing a diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating onto the surface of a substrate using a Hall-Current ion source comprising the steps of:(a) mounting said substrate in a deposition vacuum chamber containing said Hall-Current ion source and evacuating the air from said chamber;(b) supplying an inert gas to at least one self-sustaining cathode electron source of said Hall-current ion source and exciting said cathode electron source to provide a supply of electrons to an anode of said Hall-Current ion source, said anode being electrically insulated from said vacuum chamber in such a manner to prohibit the formation of a plasma migrating into the interior of said Hall-Current ion source behind said anode;(c) introducing plasma maintenance gases through a gap of said anode and into an anode discharge region within said vacuum chamber and applying a voltage to provide an anode discharge current to flow between said anode and said electron source, wherein a magnetic field established by electromagnetic means is formed across said anode discharge region and electrons ionize the plasma maintenance gases to form a plasma beam of gas ions throughout said anode discharge region;(d) plasma ion beam depositing a layer of DLC from carbon-containing precursor gases using said plasma beam while thermally cooling said anode by cooling means other than by radiative thermal emission;(e) increasing the vacuum chamber pressure to atmospheric pressure; and(f) recovering a DLC-coated substrate product.