Patent ID: 7905991

Claim:
A vacuum treatment system ( 1 ) for treating workpieces, with a treatment chamber ( 10 ) that can be evacuated and in which a low-volt arc-discharge device is placed, at least one locking loading/unloading aperture, at least one coating source placed on one side wall of the treatment chamber, one device producing a magnetic field for creating a remote magnetic field and at least one workpiece holder for holding workpieces, characterized by the fact that at least one coating source is provided with a target-shutter arrangement ( 8 , 8 ′) in which, when the shutter covers the target, the distance between the shutter ( 8 ) and the target ( 12 ) is maintained to be between 5 and 30 mm substantially across an entire area where the shutter ( 8 ) and the target ( 12 ) overlap, thus permitting, on one hand, the ignition and operation of a magnetron or a cathode spark discharge behind the target and, on the other hand, preventing the ignition of an auxiliary plasma with the target ( 8 ) turned off.