Deposition substrate temperature and monitoring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9464350-B2
Application number	US-201414215986-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2014
Priority date	Mar 24, 2011
Publication date	Oct 11, 2016
Grant date	Oct 11, 2016

Abstract

An apparatus for depositing a coating on one or more parts ( 21 ) has: a chamber ( 22 ); a part holder ( 64 ) for carrying the part(s); a bias voltage source ( 94 ) coupled to the part(s) to apply a bias voltage to the part(s); a source ( 34 ) of the coating material; a plurality of temperature sensors ( 76 ); and a plurality of leads ( 90 ) passing outputs of the temperature sensors out from the chamber. A temperature monitoring system ( 150 ) has a temperature data processor ( 300 ). At least one fiber optic link ( 223 ) couples the temperature data processor to the temperature sensors so as to electrically isolate the temperature data processor from the bias voltage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for depositing a coating on one or more part(s) ( 21 ), the apparatus comprising:
a chamber ( 22 );
a part holder ( 64 ) for carrying the part(s) ( 21 );
a bias voltage source ( 94 ) coupled to the part(s) to apply a bias voltage to the part(s);
a source ( 34 ) of the coating material;
a plurality of temperature sensors ( 76 );
a plurality of leads ( 90 ) passing outputs of the temperature sensors out from the chamber;
a temperature monitoring system ( 150 ) comprising a temperature data processor ( 300 ); and
a plurality of fiber optic links ( 223 ) coupling the temperature data processor to the temperature sensors so as to electrically isolate the temperature data processor from the bias voltage,

for each temperature sensor, the apparatus comprises:
an associated fiber optic link of said plurality of fiber optic links ( 223 );
an optical isolator ( 242 ) between the temperature sensor and the associated fiber optic link;
a preamplifier ( 228 ) receiving output of the associated one of the temperature sensors;
a low-pass filter ( 240 );
the associated said optical isolator ( 242 ) between the preamplifier and the low-pass filter; and
a voltage-to-frequency converter ( 262 ) between the low-pass filter and the associated one of the fiber optic links ( 223 ); and
a frequency-to-voltage converter ( 280 ) between the associated one of the fiber optic links and the temperature data processor ( 300 ).

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:
the temperature monitoring system comprises a temperature registration/recording unit ( 308 ) with one or more temperature monitors ( 310 ).

3. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
an automatic temperature control system ( 160 ) connected with the temperature data processor ( 300 ) at the input and with the bias voltage source ( 94 ) at the output to provide feedback temperature control by regulating parameters of the bias voltage applied to the part(s).

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:
the source of coating material comprises an ingot ( 35 ) and an electron beam source ( 50 ) positioned to direct a beam ( 52 ) to the ingot.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:
the part holder is on a sting assembly shiftable between:
an inserted condition where the sting assembly holds the part(s) within the chamber for coating; and
a retracted condition where the sting assembly holds the part(s) outside of the chamber; and

the source of the coating material is positioned to direct a flow of the coating material to the part(s) in the inserted condition.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:
the temperature sensors are a plurality of thermocouples.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein each of the fiber optic links comprises:
a light-emitting diode (LED) ( 284 ); a photodiode ( 286 ); and a flexible optical fiber ( 224 ) positioned to carry light from the LED to the photodiode.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein:
the optical fiber has a length of at least 1 meter.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:
a rotating brush collector ( 152 ) conveys outputs of the temperature sensors.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein:
the rotating brush collector also conveys the bias voltage from the bias voltage source to the part(s).

11. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein:
the temperature sensors are a plurality of thermocouples.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein for each one of the temperature sensors, the apparatus comprises:
a first AC/DC converter ( 364 ) supplying the associated preamplifier ( 228 ).

13. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising:
a voltage stabilizer ( 354 ) coupled to supply power to the voltage-to-frequency converters ( 262 ); and
a second AC/DC converter ( 366 ) for supplying power to the low pass filters ( 240 ).

14. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising:
a first decoupling transformer ( 340 ) and a first rectifying bridge ( 352 ) for supplying power to the voltage stabilizer ( 354 ); and
a second decoupling transformer ( 342 ) and a second rectifying bridge ( 356 ) for supplying power to an RF decoupling transformer ( 362 ) by a DC/AC converter ( 360 ) for powering the first AC/DC converters ( 364 ) supplying the associated preamplifiers ( 228 ).

15. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising;
an isolation transformer ( 320 ) between a power supply ( 170 ) and the first and second decoupling transformers ( 340 , 342 ).

16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the optical isolator is a non-fiber optic optical isolator.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein:
for each of the of the frequency-to-voltage converter ( 280 ), the temperature data processor ( 300 ) comprises a corresponding analog-digital converter connected to a corresponding output of the frequency-to-voltage converter.

Assignees

• United Technologies Corp
• United Techologies Corp

Inventors

• Mullin Richard S
• Kuzmichev Anatoly
• Belousov Igor V
• Kononenko Yuriy G
• Pankov Oleg G
• Ryzhikov Dmitriy

Classifications

• C23C14/541 Primary

  Heating or cooling of the substrates · CPC title

• G01K1/026

  arrangements for monitoring a plurality of temperatures, e.g. by multiplexing · CPC title