Patent ID: 7771574

Claim:
A rectangular sputtering cathode system comprising a magnet system and a target plate being configured to supply coating material during operation and being for coating processes in a vacuum chamber in which the target plate, which is an at least single-piece target plate, is mounted on an elastic metallic diaphragm on whose side facing away from the target plate there is located a conduit with an inflow line and an outflow line for a cooling agent and a hollow space for the magnet system, the magnet system being disposed in a supporting tub sealed against the diaphragm and not contacted by the cooling agent and the entire configuration being disposed on a supporting structure, wherein the supporting structure for the sputtering cathode comprises a hollow body which is closed gas-tight against the interior space of the vacuum chamber and which connects the hollow space encompassing the magnet system with the outside of the vacuum chamber, the cooling agent channel is a conduit closed on its cross sectional periphery and has at least one flat side in thermally conducting connection with the diaphragm, a further hollow space of the hollow body is connected with the external atmospheric pressure, the further hollow space being connected with the hollow space for the magnet system such that the surface of the diaphragm facing the hollow space and the surfaces of the conduit facing away from the diaphragm are each directly exposed via the hollow body of said supporting structure and the hollow space to atmospheric pressure outside of the vacuum chamber.