Patent ID: 8906206

Claim:
A method for sputtering thin films onto generally-opposed major surfaces of a glass sheet substrate having a top edge and a bottom edge, the method comprising: providing a coater having a substrate transport system adapted for maintaining the glass substrate in a vertical-offset configuration wherein the substrate is offset from vertical by an acute angle between about 5 degrees to less than about 25 degrees, the substrate transport system defining a path of substrate travel extending through the coater, the substrate transport system including a side support for supporting a rear surface that is one of the major surfaces of the substrate, the side support having a plurality of wheels adapted to roll directly against the rear major surface of the substrate when the substrate is conveyed along the path of substrate travel, at least a portion of a wheel positioned to roll directly against the rear major surface of the substrate proximate the top edge to support the substrate in the vertical-offset configuration, the side support bounding a passage through which coating material passes when such coating material is sputtered onto the substrate's rear major surface, the coater including at least one sputtering apparatus on each of two sides of the path of substrate travel; positioning the substrate on the substrate transport system in the vertical-offset configuration; conveying the substrate along the path of substrate travel in the vertical-offset configuration; operating the sputtering apparatuses so as to sputter coatings onto both generally-opposed major surfaces of the substrate in a single pass of the substrate along the path of substrate travel, wherein one of said sputtering apparatuses is a rear sputtering apparatus that is aligned with said passage, wherein the rear sputtering apparatus includes a sputtering target, wherein said conveying the substrate along the path of substrate travel involves bringing the substrate to a position where said passage is between said rear sputtering apparatus and the substrate's rear major surface, and wherein said operating the sputtering apparatuses involves bombarding the sputtering target with ions so as to eject particles of sputtered materials from the sputtering target through said passage and onto the substrate's rear major surface, thereby sputtering a rear coating through said passage and entirely over the substrate's rear major surface to achieve full-area coating of the substrate's rear major surface.