Puls Magnetron Sputtern von optischen Mehrlagenschichten auf Kunststofffolien

Roll to roll deposition systems for polymer webs are a special type of vacuum coaters. They contain elements of both batch coaters and inline coaters. Coils with foils with a length up to 12 km, depending of machine size, can be put into these machines. Afterwards this foil is unwinded and rewinded under vacuum and passes during this procedure one or more deposition zones. In most cases the deposition zones are located around a chilling drum which prevents the foil from getting overheated. In 1933 first time a vacuum deposition was performed on a running web, that time for the deposition of silver onto fabrics. The first application of industrial importance was the metallization of paper for making capacitors (1935). Beginning of the 70th the deposition of polymer webs for packaging became a mass market. This application together with the capacitors are dominant concerning the market volume of coated material up to the present time. Besides these mass markets exist some high tech products which can be manufactured only by sputtering. These will be in the focus of this paper.