Patent ID: 7560038

Claim:
A film forming method comprises: (1) holding at least one object in a chamber; (2) depositing a film-forming material on the object; and (3) etching the film-forming material while depositing is conducted, wherein the depositing step (2) comprises (a) providing a target material for forming a film, (b) irradiating an ion beam to bombard the target material to form a first deposition beam, and (c) bombarding the object with the first deposition beam, and wherein the etching step comprises (i) providing an atmosphere of inert or reactive gas at a predetermined pressure in a chamber; and (ii) ionizing the atmosphere to generate an etching ion beam to bombard the object, and wherein the first deposition beam and the etching ion beam bombard the object along different paths, and wherein a second film is deposited on the film by a second deposition source bombarding the object, the second deposition source is an ion beam source using a hydrocarbon as precursor with the aid of another ion beam source, and accordingly the second film is a diamond like carbon film.