HIGH-RATE CATHODIC ARC DEP'OSITION*

Vacuum deposition of thin films on large area substrates has enjoyed a steady growth during the last years. This development is strongly coupled to the continuous improvement of PVDl techniques like magnetron or evaporation. Using the traditional thermal evaporation, highest rates can be achieved at the lowest costs, but there are a lot of potential applications which would need an improved quality of the films (nanocrystalline instead of columnar growth, higher density, no pin-holes, etc.). There are several new developments directed onto a (moderate) increase of the activation of the thermal vapor. Vacuum arc evaporation, as characterized for the highest degree of ionization between the industrial deposition sources, will be used in different concepts to realize an activated high rate deposition, suitable for industrial large area coating. A shiort revue of arc based activated deposition technologies will be given in the paper. Advantages and problems of combinations (thermal evaporation together with a dc- or pulsed arc source) activated sources (activation of the neutral vapor by additional arc discharge) and new sources (electron beams sustained high current arc: ,,spotless arc", anodic arc) are discussed in relation of their possible applications. Large area coating is a very complex problem with many aspects such as deposition rate, investment costs, technology reliability, safety demands and film properties. For each technological process the activation must be adapted to the specific demands and conditions.