Patent ID: 7194197

Claim:
A physical vapor deposition effusion system, comprising: a device configured to translate a strip material through a physical vapor deposition zone and along a processing path in a deposition chamber, each of the strip material and the physical vapor deposition zone having a width oriented perpendicular to the processing path and a length oriented parallel to the processing path; and first and second substantially closed vessels located serially along the processing path in the same deposition chamber, each vessel containing a heated quantity of a different source material, the first and second vessels being configured to concurrently emit the different source materials and produce overlapping plumes of the different source materials in the physical vapor deposition zone in the same deposition chamber, each vessel including an array of vapor delivery nozzles distributed uniformly across the vessel in a direction corresponding to the width of the physical vapor deposition zone and configured to expel overlapping plumes of source material, so that a fog of source materials is created and deposited on the strip material in the deposition zone, the fog having a substantially uniform composition across the width of the physical vapor deposition zone and a varying composition across the length of the physical vapor deposition zone.