Negative-ion implanter for powders and uniform implantation without particle scattering

A negative-ion implanter was developed for uniform implantation into powders without particle scattering. It consists of a plasma sputter-type negative-ion source, a mass-separator, a transport system, and a Faraday cup with an agitator. The agitator of the electromagnetic vibrator at a frequency of 120 Hz mixes particles for whole surface treatment and uniform implantation. In this implanter, there was no scattering observed in any kinds of powders for a size of 5 to 1,000 μm at agitation as well as in a stationary state with no external charge compensator. Depth profiles of implanted atoms in a sphere glass during agitation was measured by SIMS and calculated as compared to that in a flat plate. Besides, the uniformity of implanted atoms among particles was evaluated from the results of XPS