ARC EVAPORATION CATHODES

We develop arc evaporation and related cathodes since 1994. In the beginning we used only long tubular cathodes with direct cooling, without any arc spot velocity or trajectory control. The spark igniter was electro-mechanical type and we had some problems with long term deposition processes, because of increasing igniter to cathode welding probability. Since 1998 we developed non-cooled rod cathodes with complex shape and longitude up to 2.5m for better layer thickness uniformity.

Since 2001 we developed especially designed single chip microcontroller based controller for cathodic arc evaporator's control and overcame all of problems occurring till this time. Use of this controller permits much rarely to distinguish the arc spot, thus reducing the igniter working and igniter to cathode welding probability. Apart of it we added near to cathode helical coil, thus increasing the arc spot velocity and reducing droplet's size and their number per sq. cm. In this cases the target use is in the range of 50%.

In the beginning of 2003 we started new project for development of planar arc evaporation cathodes with arc spot velocity and trajectory control for further reducing of droplets size and number, thus improving deposited film quality. Embedding especially designed magnetic systems using magnetic field modeling software, we drastically reduced unwanted droplets size and increased the target use up to 70%. Now we can provide customers with arc evaporation cathodes with indirect target cooling up to 1m long. For longer cathodes we can provide either direct target cooling or indirect diaphragm cooling, using thin copper diaphragm. All of our planar cathodes were designed for flange mounting through wall opening, but it is possible to develop new designs fully immersed in vacuum by customer request. We are open to satisfy all customer requirements regarding the cathode's sizes and design.

For increasing the system reliability we equipped our arc cathodes with second electro-mechanical spark igniter, thus decreasing the suddenly interruption of the deposition process because of igniter welding. Now we can provide our customers not only with highly reliable arc evaporation cathodes, but using our intelligent vacuum gauges, programmable leak valves and power supplies we are able deliver complete solutions for deposition of decorative or wear-resistant hard coatings, including graded coatings and multi-layer super-lattices onto different types of substrate materials.

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