Vacuum and surface technology have significantly contributed to the rapid progress in microelectronics, data storage, displays, photonics, aerospace, automotive, architectural glass and other industries. One of the key elements in the impressive development of vacuum and surface technology is the increased use of plasma processes. Plasma can be used as a tool for heating, evaporation, sputtering, etching and ionization as well as an activator for gaseous atoms and molecules. In the ionized and activated state, the atoms and molecules can react more easily with each other and they provide a higher energy during condensation, ensuring denser films. The impact of vacuum and plasma technology on some important industrial segments is illustrated. The production of storage media such as hard disks as well as of thin film heads shows an enormous growth rate. High-rate planar magnetron sputtering opened the way for dedicated production equipment with high efficiency and high reliability. The huge market of semiconductors and microelectronics would hardly exist without vacuum, plasma and thin-film technology. Planar magnetron sputtering and PECVD equally paved the way for a variety of thin films needed in manufacturing for all kinds of flat panel displays. The numerous variants of ion plating resulted in a huge leap in the quality of optical coatings required by modern optics. Ion plating and are evaporation made it possible to produce wear-resistant coatings for tools and precision parts, indispensable today in many industries. Also, the architectural glass business and the automotive business depend heavily on modern vacuum-coating techniques. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.
