Treating the surface of an object or coating this with a thin film with the aim of giving the object improved characteristics is a method long known in the art. In addition to using surface treatment for purely decorative applications, tools, machine parts and electronic components, among other things, are also surface-treated. Such treatments are furthermore used in medical and optical contexts.
The majority of surface treatment processes are performed under vacuum. Examples of such processes include so-called PVD, CVD and sputtering, among other things for cleaning surfaces.
The prior art includes a so-called cluster system for the surface treatment of substrates under vacuum, which comprises a robot for moving the substrate between a number of process chambers, in which each respective surface treatment process is performed. Such a robot must serve the system process chambers sequentially, which limits the efficiency of the system. A robot of this type may involve advanced electronics and software. In addition, with cluster systems there may be difficulty in arranging them so that the time which each substrate spends in a vacuum is the same for all substrates. Some cluster systems are only designed to be capable of handling one type of substrate, and if the system is to treat other types of substrate a system conversion will be required, which may be difficult and costly to undertake.