The Multi-Sources of Cathode Arc (MSCA) were installed in the vacuum chamber in order to increase the substrate temperature and to provide a plenty of Ti plasmas from titanium plate inside the chamber. The increase rate of the substrate temperature of the SKD11 substrate against the deposition time for two thicknesses of the substrate by operations with both single ion source and MSCA was obtained. It was known that MSCA were useful for the film synthesis for the larger substrate both in size and in number. A wider diffusion interface between TiN film and SKD11 substrate was formed by dissolution of both TiN and Ti2N into the substrate more actively due to plenty Ti ion numbers supplied by MSCA. Due to the thick diffusion interface the adhesion of the film increased and thus the hardness increased up to twice. The peaks of Ti2N(111) and Ti2N(211) which are indicators of high hardness were observed in XRD pattern. The pseudo-diffusion interface between the outer TiN film and substrate formed and it improved the film adhesion. By using MSCA the hardness of SKD11 surface was improved up to 126 from 58 in Rockwell-C scale by the TiN deposition in this study.

In order to improve surface smoothness and increase its surface hardness of the PK-4 steel mold the dependencies of the surface temperatures of substrate, deposition times, and bias voltages applied to the substrate on the TiN film made by the physical vapor deposition were studied. Six main steps of the synthesis process were introduced to improve the robustness. Double applications of the bias voltages increased the surface hardness. The rotating substrates increased the uniformity of the films. 1000 times-magnified pictures were taken to analyze the micro-grains of TiN. SEM pictures were taken to confirm the surface smoothness. Both the surface temperature of substrates and deposition time were affecting factors. The maximal hardness of TiN film deposited on KP-4 was increased by 20%. The surface temperature of substrates contributed to 13% in the increase of hardness. The deposition time also contributed to 6% in the increase of hardness respectively.

By newly adopting of a two-step bias voltage-sustained nitrification of the plasma process the titanium nitride films which applied to the mold base steel KP-1 are manufactured. The two-step process of biased voltages was introduced in order to consider microscopic kinematics of Ti ion bombardments which lead to a deep study on the plasmas including surface temperature of substrates associated with nitrification the KP-1 surface. For supplying of the additional biased voltage to the conventional coater, an anode-biased ring was installed near the plasma source and it ultimately upgraded the typical method of physical vapor depositions which uniquely adopted one bias voltage applied to the substrates because the additional ring controlled both ions and electrons effectively in order to improve surface smoothness and to increase surface hardness with various values of surface temperatures of substrate and deposition times. The discharge ionic current of titanium flux was measured as functions of both the ring bias voltage and the substrate voltage using single probe. By using plasma physics for the two-step bias voltages the discrete mean-free-times, due to cyclonic motions of ions by magnetic field, were studied to show the effects of two bias voltages. The maximal hardness increase of Ti/TiN films deposited on KP-1 was 370% when the surface temperature was 370 °C, the substrate bias voltage of 800volts, and the deposition time was 55 minutes after ring bias was applied. The 2000 times-magnified cross-sectional morphologies of TiN films deposited on the carbon mold base KP-1 were taken as a function of the ring anode bias. The 1000 times-magnified photograph of the TiN-filmed surface deposited on KP-1 mold base was taken to investigate the surface morphology. In order to examine the two-step bias test with respect to both the corrosion problem and the surface hardness, the 2000 times-magnified morphological photograph of a cross-sectional Ti/TiN film which was deposited on the KP-1steel mold was taken.

Nitrogen ions with an energy of 200keV were used for the investigation of the interlayer effects of nitrogen implantation in the TiN/N2-film synthesis on the NAK80 steel. The nitrogen ion plasmas formed a broad ion mixing area at the interface between TiN film and NAK80 substrate. The measured hardness indicates the well mixing of TiN film into the NAK80 substrate, which may have an effect on increasing the adhesion of the deposited film. The chemical components and micro-hardness of the filmed surface were measured. The micro-hardness of Rockwell C-scale (HRC) was increased from 40 to 61 after the films of TiN/N2 were synthesized on the NAK80 substrate, the increased micro-hardness is attributed to the metallurgical phase change and formation of amorphous crystal due to the nitrogen implantation.