Predicting cathode material evaporation by the electric arc in PVD processes

Central Laboratory of Applied Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 61, St. Peterburg Blvd., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria

^a e-mail: petkovnik@gmail.com

Received: 22 January 2015
Revised: 9 March 2015
Accepted: 18 May 2015
Published online: 24 June 2015

Abstract

The paper presents a calculation model to quantitatively predict the mass loss of a cathode material as a function of discharge current in the electric arc plasma deposition process. The purpose of the model is to calculate the quantity of the evaporated material depending on the applied arc current. The model is illustrated by an example of metal evaporation from massive conical and cylindrical cathodes in a vacuum environment. The model includes a correction factor, representing differences in technical terms of the metal evaporation process in a vacuum environment by electric arc. The correction factor is experimentally determined once for each of the different shapes of cathodes. This model is suitable for physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes with DC arc evaporation of material from massive metal cathodes.