How Proven Plasma Components Help Reduce Costs & Improve Quality

If you are using magnetron sputtering in your manufacturing, we can provide high-quality components needed for creating excellent coating results, no matter if you are using our equipment or third-party systems. Among them are end blocks and magnet bars that are needed for magnetron sputter sources with rotatable targets.

End Blocks

In simple terms, end blocks are components holding the target cylinders in place, rotate them and supply them with energy and cooling water. As they are constantly in operation, they need to be very reliable. To guarantee that, they need to be serviced after a certain time. It is vital that this maintenance is both easy to do and fast as it holds up the entire coating process. It is also preferable that the maintenance intervals are as long as possible. 

Our latest X-Series End Blocks are a very good option for customers looking for such qualities. The X-Series is available for upgrades and retrofits for all coating systems, regardless of the manufacturer, and covers a wide range of specifications.

The XC-S End Block is a compact, internal drop-in end block for low- to medium-power sputter systems. Typical applications for this type of  end block are architectural glass, photovoltaics, web and display coating and coatings for automotive applications. Furthermore, this end block is easy to maintain and always up to date in  terms of seal systems and current transmission.

The new X-Series End Block XC-L is a drop-in end block for mid- to high-power applications such as architectural glass, thin-film photovoltaics, anti-reflective or TCO coatings.

Efficient Wear & Spare Part Concept

Due to the modular setup of these end blocks, the easy accessibility and robust design, only a small number of wear and spare parts must be handled:

• Water and vacuum sealing cartridges for regular service
• Brushes and sealings for advanced service
• Carbon brush exchange can be done individually
• For regular and advanced service, the end block remains installed, no 
  need for additional end block maintenance areas near production tools
• Bearings and further critical parts designed as permanent or “never 
  needs maintenance”
• Seal counter surface and sealing designed as plug and play: interchangeable parts to keep seal systems always up to date

Magnet Bars

Magnet bars are components belonging to rotatable magnetrons and are located inside the rotary target cylinder. They are needed to create and adjust the magnetic field and thereby influence the coating process. In order to enable that, they consist of many Individual magnets.

VON ARDENNE magnet bars are the state of the art in technology. We have installed more than 2000 magnet bars in all fields of coating application.  In the development of our magnet bars, we focus on target erosion, layer  uniformity, process stability and application-depending field strengths. They are available in a wide range of strengths and lengths and are  inspected in our in-house facilities for quality control.

Best Performance & Quality Control on the Market

• Most homogeneous field uniformity in the market with up to 3 x better magnetic field uniformity
• Smaller redeposition zone leading to less arcing and less nodules
• Straight targets instead of dog bone targets, resulting in a cost benefit
• In-house quality control of magnets - only magnets meeting very 
  demanding specifications are used for assembly of magnetic systems
• Our magnetic systems are assembled by skilled workers.
• High sensitivity magnetic measurement during assembly [11 sensor 
  simultaneous measurement for fast and complete 2D magnetic field 
  scan]
• Re-assembly of magnetic systems if needed, until uniformity spec is 
  fulfilled
   

Conclusion

VON ARDENNE equip­ment is used in over 50 coun­tries. We have es­tab­lished an in­stalled base of hun­dreds of coat­ing sys­tems world­wide, rang­ing from small tools to equip­ment for large-area coat­ing ap­pli­ca­tions. Every day, our cus­tomers are fac­ing the chal­lenge of stay­ing in a lead­ing po­si­tion. And we strive support them with high-quality equipment and components, technology expertise and local service. Customers in China can rely on our strong network of service locations and our manufacturing facility.

Our mis­sion is to cre­ate value by bring­ing our in­dus­try lead­ing tech­nol­ogy and process ex­pe­ri­ence to our cus­tomers. We want to achieve that by of­fer­ing state-of-the-art hard­ware so­lu­tions with best-in-class per­for­mance spec­i­fi­ca­tions and re­li­a­bil­ity.

Fur­ther­more, we of­fer ad­vanced process con­trol hard­ware and soft­ware so­lu­tions to con­trol processes of sin­gle sources or in com­plex layer stacks set­tings. It is our aim to de­liver a guar­an­teed process re­sult ac­cord­ing to your spec­i­fi­ca­tions and time­line. And we are con­fi­dent that we can of­fer you what you are look­ing for in a sup­plier.

If you would like to know more, please contact Ronny Borchel (borchel.ronny@vonardenne.biz) or go to this page.