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This paper describes a new method of sputtering an insulating material on a substrate. This method offers numerous advantages over previous techniques such as dual magnetron sputtering. The new approach uses a single target, the surface of which is kept free from unwanted charging and resultant arcing using alternating power. The system also does not suffer from the "disappearing anode" effect and can be operated continuously in a production environment. This is accomplished through use of an ac power supply and a novel anode and circuit configuration that uses the plasma itself as a rectifier to convert the applied alternating power to dc power for the single cathode. The system is described in detail and preliminary experimental results are presented.

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