The industrial establishment of a new highly productive deposition technique for reflection increasing layer systems

Abstract

Energy economizing is a more and more essential demand of industries in America and Europe. Thus the illumination industries are looking for possibilities of enhancing the lighting efficiency especially by increasing the reflectance of the basic reflection materials. The ecologically beneficial PVD-techniques are the preferential means of solving this task. Reflection increasing multilayer systems have been well-known for several decades. But in the most application cases the plants using PVD-techniques have not been productive enough for mass production. Due to the necessity of an own optimized PVD-process for each single layer, the productivity of a multilayer depositing plant depends on the capability of combinations of several PVD-techniques in a continuous working line. Von Ardenne Anlagentechnik developed a highly productive deposition line based on the air-to-air principle allowing continuous production and on the successive combination of two deposition techniques: high rate sputtering and electron beam reactive evaporation. Last year, in Germany, the first plant of this type went into production. Metal strips of up to 1250 mm width passing the line attain a reflectance of 96% The layer parameters are measured by in situ ellipsometry at the surface of the moved strip. The highly productive solution of the task set by the illumination industries opens up new possibilities for solving similar multilayer deposition tasks as well.