Abstract: Disclosed herein is a vacuum deposition apparatus including a vacuum chamber having an opening, a substrate to form a thin film thereon provided in the vacuum chamber, an evacuating device connected to the vacuum chamber for evacuating the vacuum chamber, a moving unit provided movably relative to the opening of the vacuum chamber, the moving unit having a cover for openably closing the opening of the vacuum chamber and a supporting member projecting from the cover, a reactor unit removably mounted on the supporting member of the moving unit for forming a thin film on the substrate in the condition where the reactor unit is moved into the vacuum chamber by the moving unit, and a positioning device provided in the vacuum chamber and having a retainer for separating the reactor unit from the supporting member of the moving unit and for retaining the rector unit with a given gap defined between the reactor unit and the substrate.

Abstract: A plasma CVD is provided for film formation in which a support member is sufficiently cooled so as to suppress thermal deformation and abnormal discharge, thus enabling to preferably carry out the film formation.After a metal thin film is formed on a tape-shaped non-magnetic support member, the non-magnetic support member is made to travel continuously along a cooling can wile a thin film is formed on the metal thin film by way of the plasma CVD method, wherein the cooling can includes a metal can 12 having an outer circumferential surface which is entirely covered by an insulating layer 15 formed by a ceramic having a thickness of 0.3 to 1.0 mm.