Frequency scaling with miniature COmpact MIcrowave and Coaxial ion sources.

We will present recent basic developments about possible extension of the COMIC (for COmpact MIcrowave and Coaxial) devices up to 5.8 GHz in place of the present 2.45 GHz operation [P. Sortais, T. Lamy, J. Médard, J. Angot, L. Latrasse, and T. Thuillier, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 02B314 (2010)]. New applications associating multiple COMIC devices for thin film deposition will be described and we will explain why an increase of the current density delivered by each individual ion source could lead to the increase of the deposition rate. For this purpose, we will present results of about two devices working at 5.8 GHz. The first one is a tiny ion source, the world smallest microwave ion source, exactly similar to COMIC but operating at 5.8 GHz with a quarter wave cavity structure and a few watts microwave power consumption. We will show that the frequency scaling effect is effective inside such small machines. The second one is a more ambitious ion source designed around a three quarter wave structure that works with a few tens of watts at 5.8 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]