Abstract: Surface treatment of a substrate by ion beam sputtering (IBS). The sputtered material impacts on the substrate with a kinetic energy which may be several orders of magnitude higher than in conventional sputter deposition techniques, and material is deposited along a path with high energy directed substantially normal to the target surface, allowing precise control of deposition conditions.Novel treatment processes with IBS sputtering include coating or activating of circuit board holes, alloying or transformation of surface chemistry, and the deposition of metallic, crystalline or large-molecule coatings which are intimately bonded to a crystalline or amorphous substrate. Special homologous and graded coatings allow the repair of lattice damage in crystalline substrates, and permit the formation of stress free and crystalling layers, and other coatings with diverse electrical, optical, chemical or other physical surface properties.