EXPANDING THERMAL PLASMA DEPOSITION SYSTEM

• Main Authors: IACOVANGELO, CHARLES, D, MIEBACH, THOMAS, MERCEDES, MICHAEL, W, GASWORTH, STEVEN, M, HAAG, MICHAEL, R
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 22.09.2005
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL; CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; CHEMISTRY; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATIONOR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY IONIMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION INGENERAL; METALLURGY; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PLASMA TECHNIQUE; PROCESSES FOR APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TOSURFACES, IN GENERAL; PRODUCTION OF ACCELERATED ELECTRICALLY-CHARGED PARTICLES OR OFNEUTRONS; PRODUCTION OR ACCELERATION OF NEUTRAL MOLECULAR OR ATOMICBEAMS; SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THESURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; TRANSPORTING

A system to coat a substrate includes a deposition chamber maintained at sub-atmospheric pressure, one or more arrays containing two or more expanding thermal plasma sources (14) associated with the deposition chamber, and at least one injector (13) containing orifices (15) for each array. The substrate is positioned in the deposition chamber and each expanding thermal plasma source produces a plasma jet with a central axis, while the injector injects vaporized reagents into the plasma to form a coating that is deposited on the substrate. The injector orifices are located within a specified distance from the expanding thermal plasma source to obtain generally a coating with generally uniform coating properties. La présente invention se rapporte à un système permettant de revêtir un substrat, qui comprend une chambre de dépôt maintenue à pression sous-atmosphérique, un ou plusieurs réseaux contenant au moins deux sources plasma thermique en expansion (14) associées à la chambre de dépôt, et au moins un injecteur (13) doté d'orifices (15) pour chaque réseau. Le substrat est placé dans la chambre de dépôt, et chaque source plasma thermique en expansion produit un jet de plasma comportant un axe central, tandis que l'injecteur injecte des réactifs vaporisés dans le plasma afin de former un revêtement qui est déposé sur le substrat. Les orifices de l'injecteur sont placés à une distance déterminée de la source plasma thermique en expansion, afin que l'on obtienne un revêtement doté de propriétés de revêtement généralement uniformes.