Appeal No. 1998-2308
Application No. 08/379,868
throughout an atmosphere comprising a mixture of reactive and inert
gases and having a sputtering station and an oxidizing
station spaced apart within the chamber. Further details of this
appealed subject matter are recited in illustrative claims 1, 10, 12
through 14, 19, and 20, which are reproduced below:
1. A method of depositing an oxidized metal coating
on a substrate in a chamber having throughout an
atmosphere comprising a mixture of reactive and inert
gases and having a sputtering station and an oxidizing
station spaced apart within said chamber, the oxidizing
station providing a glow discharge, including the steps of
disposing the substrate at the sputtering station and
there sputtering onto the substrate from a metal target a
layer of elemental metal and oxidized metal, and moving
the substrate to the oxidizing station and there
subjecting said layer to reactive ions which oxidize the
elemental metal in said layer.
10. A method as in claim 1 in which said sputtering
step comprises applying to said target a generally square
wave voltage having a positive portion which is less than
fifty percent of a cycle and a negative portion which is
more than fifty percent of a cycle and provides a negative
DC component.
12. A method as in claim 10 wherein the voltage is
applied from a low-impedance source.
13. A method as in claim 10 wherein the oxidizing
station is provided with a non-sputtering cathode
including the step of applying to said cathode a negative
DC potential.
2
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