Production of MF and DC-pulse sputtered anti-reflective/anti-static optical interference coatings using a large area in-line coater

• Published in: Thin solid films 2006-04, Vol.502 (1), p.175-180
• Main Authors: Sittinger, V., Pflug, A., Werner, W., Rickers, C., Vergöhl, M., Kaiser, A., Szyszka, B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ARAS coatings; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Deposition by sputtering; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Multilayers; Optical coatings; Optical elements, devices, and systems; Optics; Physics; Sputtering
• ISSN: 0040-6090; 1879-2731
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2005.07.270

This paper is on the deposition of antistatic and antireflective coatings (ARAS coatings) based on TiO 2, SiO 2 and ITO films on 300 × 300 mm 2 glass substrates using a production-like in-line sputter system with a cathode length of 750 mm. In order to achieve a reproducible and homogenous deposition process, we studied the deposition of single and multilayer systems for different process conditions. The optical constants and individual layer thicknesses have been determined by variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry and spectroscopic photometry as well as by X-ray reflectometry (XRR). With this information we used sequent redesigns of the ARAS stack in order to compensate for film thickness deviations during the deposition of the multilayer stack. Approaches to minimize the drawbacks of depositing optical coatings using in-line sputter systems are shown.