Working principle of vacuum ion coating equipment

Vacuum ion plating equipment is a device that uses a high-voltage electric field to accelerate ion beams and make them hit the surface of an object, thereby forming a thin film. Its working principle can be divided into three parts, namely vacuum system, ion source and target.
1. Vacuum system
Vacuum is the basic condition for the operation of ion plating equipment, and the three factors of its reaction are pressure, temperature and saturation. In order to ensure the accuracy and stability of the reaction, the vacuum requirement is very high. Therefore, the vacuum system is one of the key parts of ion plating equipment.
The vacuum system is mainly composed of four parts: pumping system, pressure detection system, gas backup system and leakage prevention system. The air extraction system can extract the gas in the equipment to achieve a vacuum state. But this requires a complex piping system and various vacuum pumps, including mechanical pumps, diffusion pumps, molecular pumps, etc.
The pressure detection system can detect the pressure in the vacuum chamber in real time and adjust it according to the data. In the event of a leak, a gas backup system can be used to quickly create a vacuum. The anti-leakage system can prevent the occurrence of leakage, such as the sealing between the equipment side and the equipment side of the extraction pipeline, the closing and opening of the valve, etc.
2. Ion source
The ion source is the part of the ion plating equipment that generates the ion beam. Ion sources can be divided into two categories: bulk sources and coating sources. Bulk sources generate uniform ion beams, while coating sources are used to create thin films of specific materials. In a vacuum chamber, ion generation is usually achieved using a plasma excited discharge. The discharges induced by plasma include arc discharge, DC discharge and radio frequency discharge.
The ion source is usually composed of a cerium electrode, an anode, an ion source chamber and a coating source chamber. Among them, the ion source chamber is the main body of the ion body, and ions are generated in the vacuum chamber. The coating source chamber usually places a solid target, and the ion beam bombards the target to generate a reaction to prepare a thin film.
3. Target
The target is the material basis for forming thin films in ion plating equipment. Target materials can be various materials, such as metals, oxides, nitrides, carbides, etc. The target is chemically reacted by bombardment with ions to form a thin film. Ion plating equipment usually adopts a target switching process in order to avoid premature wear of the target.
When preparing a thin film, the target will be bombarded by an ion beam, causing the surface molecules to gradually volatilize and condense into a thin film on the surface of the substrate. Because ions can produce physical oxidation-reduction reactions, gases such as oxygen and nitrogen can also be added to the ion beam to control the chemical reaction process when preparing thin films.
Summarize
Vacuum ion plating equipment is a kind of equipment that forms moire through ion reaction. Its working principle mainly includes vacuum system, ion source and target. The ion source generates an ion beam, accelerates it to a certain speed, and then forms a thin film on the surface of the substrate through the chemical reaction of the target. By controlling the reaction process between the ion beam and the target material, various chemical reactions can be used to prepare thin films.