Patent ID: 7645495

Claim:
A method for treating a surface of a substrate using an apparatus including: a housing having a first housing part and a second housing part; a process chamber defined by the housing and configured to accommodate the subsrate; a cascade source connected to the first housing part and having a prechamber, a cathode located in the prechamber a channel that connects the prechamber with the process chamber, and mutually electrically insulated cascade plates that bound the channel; a bellows configured to couple the first housing part with the second housing part in a moveably and gastight manner so that the cascade source is movable relative to the second housing part and the process chamber; a first motor arranged outside of the process chamber and configured to rotate the first housing part relative to the second housing part around a first axis; and a second motor arranged outside of the process chamber and configured to rotate the first housing part relative to the second housing part around a second axis, the method comprising: placing a substrate having the substrate surface in the process chamber; pressurizing the prechamber to a pressure that is higher than the pressure in the process chamber; generating a plasma plume using the cascade source such that the plasma extends via the channel into the process chamber for treating the substrate surface; and moving the cascade source and the plasma plume relative to the substrate surface while treating the substrate surface by controlling one or both of the first and the second motors so as to rotate the first housing part with the cascade source around one or both of the first and the second axes relative to the second housing part.