Patent ID: 6998034

Claim:
A vacuum arc deposition apparatus comprising: a vacuum chamber; an arc evaporation source for evaporating a cathode material from a plurality of cathodes due to vacuum arc discharge, said arc evaporation source including a cathode holder made from a conductor for holding said plurality of cathodes, said plurality of cathodes attached to said holder, a trigger electrode for arc ignition, a trigger drive unit for performing an operation to change over a position of said trigger electrode to a changed-over position to thereby position said trigger electrode in front of a desired one of said plurality of cathodes and an operation to move said trigger electrode toward or to get apart from said desired one of said plurality of cathodes in said changed-over position, a shutter capable of covering fronts of all of said plurality of cathodes except said desired one of said plurality of cathodes, and a shutter drive unit for performing an operation to move said shutter to thereby change over to a cathode of said plurality of cathodes not covered with said shutter; an arc power supply connected between said cathode holder of said arc evaporation source and an anode corresponding to said cathode holder with said plurality of cathodes on a negative side; and a changeover control unit for making a changeover control to control said shutter drive unit and said trigger drive unit so as to change over to a cathode of said plurality of cathodes not covered with said shutter while positioning said trigger electrode in front of a cathode of said plurality of cathodes not covered with said shutter.