Appeal No. 1998-2342 Page 14
Application No. 08/505,739
APPENDIX A
Claims 1, 14 and 20
1 . In a sputter deposition method of coating substrates, in a sputter coating vacuum
chamber, from a relatively thick sputtering target having a sputtering surface thereon
that substantially erodes over its. life, the improvement of maintaining sputtered film
thickness uniformity across the surfaces of the substrates, from substrate to substrate,
the method comprising the step of:
progressively reducing target-to-substrate spacing as a function of target
erosion that will vary the distance from the substrate to the eroded sputtering surface so
as to maintain film thickness uniformity across the surfaces of the substrates over the
course of coating successive substrates.
14. A sputtering apparatus comprising:
a substrate holder;
a cathode assembly having a sputtering target sufficiently thick that the position
of its sputtering surface substantially changes as the target is consumed;
the substrate holder and the cathode assembly being moveable relative to each
other;
a sensor operatively related to the target having an output related to the state of
consumption of the target;
a controller having a processor programmed to determine target-to- substrate
spacing as a function of target consumption that will change the spacing of the substrate
from the sputtering surface of the target so as to produce a film of a given film thickness
uniformity across the surface of a substrate mounted on the substrate holder from a
target in the sensed state of consumption and to generate an output signal based on the
result of the determination, the controller having an input connected to the output of the
sensor ; and
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