Controlling deposition process in vacuum apparatus, comprises e.g. measuring physical property, as control variable with dead time for layer deposition, and supplying dead time dependent measurement of control variable to controller

摘要

Controlling deposition process in a vacuum apparatus, in which a substrate is moved continuously on at least one coating source, comprises measuring a physical property representing the layer thickness, as a control variable with a dead time for the layer deposition, which is greater than the response time of the coating source to a change in rate-control variable (u s) that is predominant for the rate of coating, supplying the dead time dependent measurement of the control variable to a controller, and using a control algorithm, for determining the controller output. Controlling deposition process in a vacuum apparatus, in which a substrate is moved continuously on at least one coating source, and at least one layer with a layer thickness is deposited on the substrate from the coating source, comprises measuring a physical property representing the layer thickness, as a control variable with a dead time for the layer deposition, which is greater than the response time of the coating source to a change in rate-control variable (u s) that is predominant for the rate of coating, supplying the dead time dependent measurement of the control variable to a controller, for adjusting the values of the rate-control variable, and using a control algorithm, which arithmetically combines the dead time delayed actual values of the rate-control variable, instantaneous values of the actual values of the rate-control variable and instantaneous values of the determined layer thickness, for determining the controller output.