Patent ID: 8500967

Claim:
A method of depositing a film on to a substrate, with a vacuum are evaporation apparatus comprising: a deposition vacuum chamber; a discharge unit having: an electrically grounded discharge vacuum chamber; an ungrounded cathode target located in the discharge vacuum chamber; an ungrounded anode consisting of a first coil having a plurality of continuous windings provided inside the discharge vacuum chamber to generate a first magnetic field; a second coil provided outside along and around the discharge vacuum chamber and along and around one of the ungrounded cathode target or the ungrounded anode to generate a second magnetic field; and a striker, wherein the discharge unit discharges an are of a material from the ungrounded cathode target to form a cathode-material plasma; and a plasma guiding unit entirely disposed downstream of the second coil, between the deposition vacuum chamber and the discharge unit, to guide the cathode-material plasma to the deposition vacuum chamber by an induced magnetic field to deposit the cathode material on to a substrate disposed inside the deposition vacuum chamber, the method comprising: an evacuating step of evacuating the deposition vacuum chamber containing the substrate; a second magnetic field generating step of generating the second magnetic field by feeding current to the second coil; an arc starting step of starting the are discharge by contacting the surface of the ungrounded cathode target with the striker; a cathode-material plasma generating step of generating the cathode-material plasma by are discharging the ungrounded cathode target; a first magnetic generating step of generating the first magnetic field by feeding the are discharge current to the first coil; a depositing step of depositing the cathode target on the substrate by guiding the cathode-material plasma to the deposition vacuum chamber with the plasma guiding unit, wherein the first magnetic field generating step generates the first magnetic field so that the first magnetic field extends substantially along a first direction, away from the ungrounded cathode target, in a region between the ungrounded cathode target and the ungrounded anode, wherein the second magnetic field generating step generates the second magnetic field so that the second magnetic field extends substantially along a second direction, which is substantially opposite to the first direction, toward the ungrounded cathode target, in the region between the ungrounded cathode target and the ungrounded anode, and wherein the arc discharge current fed to the first coil is DC current.