New Method for Homogeneous Plasma Production at Gas Pressure 0.005 -- 5 Pa Used for Substrate Etching, Nitriding, Ion Implantation and Coating Deposition

DC glow discharge with electrostatic confinement of electrons is used for homogeneous plasma production inside working vacuum chamber of technological system ``Bulat-6'' at argon or nitrogen pressure $p$ ranging from 0.005 Pa to 5 Pa. Plasma nonuniformity at $p \quad <$ 0.05 Pa does not exceed $\sim $ 10{\%} and rises to $\sim $ 20{\%} at $p$ = 0.5 -- 5 Pa. The argon plasma enables conductive substrates etching and targets sputtering with energetic ions as well as heating and melting metals and dielectrics with energetic electrons. The nitrogen plasma enables cost-effective ion implantation and nitriding of conductive substrates, which are negatively biased using a simple DC high-voltage power supply.