Patent ID: 8262869

Claim:
A method of processing a work piece by pulsed electric discharges in metal-gas plasmas comprising the steps of: providing a vacuum in a processing chamber, providing sputtering and reactive gases in the processing chamber, producing pulsed discharges with a duty cycle of 1*10 −7 % to 10% in gas and vapor located between first electrodes including an anode and a magnetron sputtering cathode for creating plasma blobs of ionized gas and partially ionized metal plasma by providing a pulsed current to the first electrodes from a first pulse generator, the plasma blobs moving or spreading from a region at a surface of the magnetron sputtering cathode towards second electrodes including the work piece and the anode, and applying a potential to the work piece from a second pulse generator including a DC power supply for charging a capacitor, wherein the potential is applied to the work piece in such a way that a pulsed current comprising biasing pulses arises between the second electrodes, the biasing pulses being produced from a charge of the capacitor, the biasing pulses of the pulsed current between the second electrodes having or appearing with the same frequency as the pulsed discharges.