For many years, sputtering technology has been used to produce thin films for all kinds of applications in almost any industry. The technology ranges from architectural glass coating, hard abrasive resistant tool coating, the generation of semiconductor layers in microelectronics to the coating of plastics for display technology and optical coatings.

The substrate materials that can be used are almost unlimited, like metals, plastics, glasses, semiconductors as is the synthesis of possible materials for the thin films.

The course begins with the operation of coating machines used for this purpose. From the DC magnetron discharge, over medium frequency discharges up to high power pulsed so-called HiPIMS systems. RF systems are also briefly covered.

In the next step, the associated technology and physics are explained to achieve a deeper understanding of the underlying processes. Some examples of depos¬ited films are shown, their structure explained and their industrial use discussed.

Subsequently, the plasma diagnostics of all these low-pressure processes will be addressed and the possibility to profitably apply certain methods also in the industrial environment for process control and quality control of the produced coatings.

Especially in very large plants, the homogeneity of the coating is an important issue. A newly developed active plasma resonance probe, the so-called Multi¬pole Resonance Probe (MRP), is used to address the problem of homogeneity in addition to process and quality monitoring.

Therefore, this diagnostic method, which is easy to use in an industrial environ¬ment, will be discussed in more detail, its operating principle will be explained, and its field of application will be pointed out. Advantages of using MRP will be shown with examples from industry as well.

A second easy-to-implement diagnostic is optical spectroscopy (OES). This is also briefly introduced and compared to MRP diagnostics. In everyday production, both methods prove to be complementary and provide optimal information about the current status of the machine and the running process. Furthermore, to a certain extent, they also allow predictions to be made regarding thin film quality, especially if manufacturers build up suitable databases and link them in combination with artificial intelligence (AI).