Linear Ion Beam Applications for Roll-to-Roll Metal Thin Film Coatings on PET Substrates

Linear ion beams have been introduced for the ion beam treatments of flexible substrates in roll-to-roll web coating systems. Anode layer linear ion sources (300 mm width) were used to make the linear ion beams. Oxygen ion beams having an ion energy from 200 eV to 800 eV used for the adhesion improvement of Cu thin films on PET substrates. The Cu thin films deposited by a conventional magnetron sputtering on the oxygen ion beam treated PET substrates showed Class 5 adhesion defined by ASTM D3359-97 (tape test). Argon ion beams with 1~3 keV used for the ion beam sputtering deposition process, which aims to control the initial layer before the magnetron sputtering deposition. When the discharge power of the linear ion source is 1.2 kW, static deposition rate of Cu and Ni were 7.4 and $3.5{\AA}/sec$, respectively.