Gencoa Vacuum Coating Solutions

GBIT is proud to partner with Gencoa Ltd. 

Gencoa is a UK-based manufacturing firm, supplying magnetron sputtering components and sputter-based solutions for the vacuum thin film deposition industry. Their manufactured components provide enabling technology for many state-of-the-art thin film coating processes. With more than 20 years' experience delivering products for the thin film industry, the range of products includes

- Optix process gas monitoring system for analysis and process monitoring of PVD/PACVD systems

- Rectangular planar magnetrons

- Circular planar magnetrons

- GRS rotatable magnetrons with end blocks for cantilever or drop-in mounting styles

- Speedflo reactive gas process controllers

- Plasma sources

Gencoa's experience in the industrial sputter process spans three decades and has led to production-proven designs for many applications. These include semiconductors, webs, DVDs, photovoltaics, reflectors, hard/deco coatings, and displays. They also provide process setup support and optimization, process development, and subcontract simulation services. 

See below for further details on key products.

Circular Magnetrons (3rd generation)

Gencoa's third generation range of small circular magnetrons - available in target diameters of 2" to 5" - are designed to operate under a low pressure range, and include ±45° tilt adjustment, gas injection and a rear utility box for DC, DC-pulsed, RF and HIPIMS processes as standard.

The 3G circular range of HV sources from Gencoa caters for applications from R&D to small scale production. With minimal use of polymer and newly-developed magnetics, the sources can perform in the 10-6 Torr range, delivering improvements to the deposition rate, reduced arcing, fewer impurities and a higher density coating.

The sources can be fitted with a choice of magnetic and mechanical options, leading to performance benefits appropriate for differing applications, and are built to reliably work with DC, RF, pulsed DC and HiPIMS power supplies. High yield (HY) magnetics can be fitted to target diameters of 4” and above for sputtering of precious metals, delivering target usage of 40%.

Key features

• Low pressure sputtering (10-6 to 10-2 torr)

• ± 45º tilt angle adjustment (1° accuracy)

• Standard target sizes

• High yield (HY) magnetics available for 4" and 5" target diameters, delivering >40% target usage

• Internal gas injection as standard

• Rear utility box as standard for RF and HIPIMS

• Easy target change and choice of target thickness (1-6mm)

• High strength magnetics for sputtering of magnetic material

• Indirect or direct target cooling (pre-configured)

Rectangular Planar Magnetrons 

Gencoa have a well-established track record of providing rectangular planar magnetrons and technology for coating of flexible substrates, architectural glass, solar cells, displays, touch screens and semiconductor wafers. In particular, the electrical insulation of our cathodes mean we are the partner of choice for any high power RF or HIPIMS application.

• Options include:

  • • Single Rectangular - Robust design, low maintenance costs, and a wide range of magnetic options available.

    • Dual Rectangular - Arrangement of a pair of planar magnetrons onto a single mounting flange, available with a choice of mounting styles.

    • Compact Rectangular - A recent introduction to Gencoa's rectangular range, designed to meet the demanding requirements of a small format magnetron.

    • Rectangular XH - High target use and a clean target surface, delivering high quality films and long target lifetimes.

    • Rectangular VTFLEX - Part of the Vtech range of products, providing precise film uniformity adjustments of sputtered layers.

    • Retrofit magnetics - Replacement magnetic systems to existing planar magnetrons for increased performance or replacement of defective magnets.

Optix

Optix is a multi-purpose instrument for rapid gas sensing in any vacuum environment, functioning through a wide range of operating pressures to cater for most industrial vacuum production processes without any requirement for a differential pumping system unless atmospheric sampling.

Separated from chemicals by an optical window, Optix uses a remote plasma spectroscopy concept which generates a small plasma within the sensor head. A built-in spectrometer analyzes the plasma, automatically interpreting the light spectrum to provide quantitative measurement of the presence and concentration of gas within the vacuum.

The Optix spectral information and sophisticated back-end software creates a range of uses for a wide range of applications, including contaminating processes involving hydrocarbons, solvents and long-chain polymers.

Small changes are made to the device in the case of sensing CVD and ALD type processes in order to prevent contamination of the plasma head. Sensing from atmosphere is also possible with a small roughing pump to bring the gases into the sensor.

Optix is very portable and easily switched between different vacuum systems or hand-carried in a small box to customer sites. It also offers an ultra-high sensitivity single gas option for dedicated leak detection.

Applications/Processes

• ALD

• CVD

• Etch

• Heat treatment

• Hipping

• Leak detection

• MOCVD

• OLED

• Plasma spraying

• Process gas analysis

• PVD

Pressure regime advantages

• Wide pressure range, operating directly at most process pressures

• No need for expensive/complex differential pumps

• No spurious readings from differential pump systems

• No filaments and low maintenance

• Chemically-tolerant with dedicated version for ALD and CVD processes

• Automatic calibration of total pressure reading

• Direct monitoring of the vacuum instantly register any changes (m/sec response)

• Significantly less expensive than RGA and differential pump combination

Interface

An advanced Windows user interface provides clear visualization of the condition of the process and vacuum, and powerful tools for recording and referencing data enable easy identification of process problems.

Up to 20 gases can be monitored simultaneously, with process gas tracking that can be set up with trigger/alarm outputs.

A full, tunable spectrum view (200-850nm) provides control of integration time for sensitivity adjustments, and automatic gas peak detection works from a gas auto identification database which can be adjusted to incorporate additional peaks of specific interest.

Software features

• Built-in spectrum database for atomic and molecular emission signatures

• Automatic spectrum interpretation

• Time plots for automatically or user defined species

• Customizable trigger set-up for end point detection or process control

• Comprehensive data recording and data referencing capability

• Vacuum quality tracker

• Leak detection mode 

For further information contact us today.