Appeal No. 2002-1148
Application 09/471,662
THE INVENTION
The appellants claim a sputtering apparatus and method.
Claim 1, directed toward the apparatus, is illustrative:
1. A sputtering apparatus for use in an evacuated volume
comprising:
ion source means, with means for introducing a gas,
ionizable to produce a plasma having a sheath, into said ion
source means, and with the ions leaving said ion source means in
the form of an ion efflux having an energy of about 50 eV or
less;
a sputter target, biased negative relative to ground, with
said sputter target disposed in the ion efflux of said ion source
means, whereby particles of material are sputtered from said
target;
a deposition substrate upon which the material sputtered
from said sputter target is deposited;
a wherein said ionizable gas within said evacuated volume is
at a first pressure and said ionizable gas within said ion source
is at a second pressure, and wherein said first pressure is
substantially less than said second pressure.
THE REFERENCES
References relied upon by the examiner
King 4,108,751 Aug. 22, 1978
Ceasar et al. (Ceasar) 4,376,688 Mar. 15, 1983
Quazi 4,693,805 Sep. 15, 1987
Arnold et al. (Arnold) 5,423,971 Jun. 13, 1995
“Ion Beam Neutralization”, CSC Technical Note 4, 5, 11
(undated).1
1 There is no dispute as to whether Ion Beam Neutralization
is prior art. Consequently, we consider this reference to be
2
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