Radio frequency linear ion beam source with 6 cmx66 cm beam

An inductively coupled radio frequency (rf) linear ion beam source with a 6 x66 cm rectangular cross-section beam has been developed and tested. This s ource was designed to provide filamentless, low maintenance operation, and large area coverage for materials processing applications, typically involv ing translation of substrates across the narrow beam dimension. The source has been operated on argon, oxygen, and argon/oxygen mixtures at beam energ ies from 100-1500 eV. Beam currents up to 1.0 A have been obtained with arg on at a rf discharge power of approximately 1 kW. Longitudinal beam current uniformity of better than +/- 10% has been obtained over a 50 cm length at a distance 25 cm from the ion source over a wide range of operating condit ions. Source operating characteristics and performance data are presented i ncluding lateral and longitudinal beam current density profiles. (C) 2000 A merican Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(00)55302-7].