Overcoming the insulating materials limitation in HiPIMS: Ion-assisted deposition of DLC coatings using bipolar HiPIMS

Tiron, Vasile; Ursu, Elena-Laura; Cristea, Daniel; Munteanu, Daniéla; Bulai, Georgiana; Ceban, A.; Velicu, Ioana–Laura

doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.07.239

Cited by 47 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Bipolar high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) refers to the application of positive voltage pulses following the conventional negative HiPIMS pulses and has recently attracted significant attention due to its capability of accelerating plasma ions towards the surface of the growing film [1][2][3][4][5], potentially overcoming the deposition rate problem in HiPIMS [6] and as a possible solution for ion bombardment during sputter deposition of insulating materials [7]. It is only recently that a HiPIMS discharge operated in bipolar mode has been realized [1,2,6,8] but the idea of introducing a positive voltage in a HiPIMS discharge can be traced back to the suggestion by Konstantinidis et al [9] for increasing the deposition rate in HiPIMS discharges.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pulse length selection for optimizing the accelerated ion flux fraction of a bipolar HiPIMS discharge

Viloan

Zanáška

Lundin

et al. 2020

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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The effect on the energy distributions of metal and gas ions in a bipolar high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) discharge as the negative and positive pulse lengths are altered are reported. The results presented demonstrate that the selection of the pulse lengths in a HiPIMS discharge is important in optimizing the amount of accelerated ions. A short enough negative pulse is needed so that ions do not escape to the substrate before being accelerated by the positive pulse that follows the main negative HiPIMS pulse. The length of the positive pulse should also be long enough to accelerate the majority of the ions, but a too long positive pulse depletes the process chamber of electrons so much that it makes it difficult to initiate the next HiPIMS pulse. When pulse lengths of negative and positive pulses are properly selected, the fraction of ions, both metal and gas, accelerated by the positive pulse voltage is close to 100 %.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pulse length selection for optimizing the accelerated ion flux fraction of a bipolar HiPIMS discharge

Viloan

Zanáška

Lundin

et al. 2020

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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“…Too long will deplete the process chamber of electrons, which then results to an increase in the formative time lag of the current initiation of the next HiPIMS pulse [122,123]. This results to a drop in the Pavg, which could be compensated by increasing the frequency of the pulses as we did in Paper III and Paper V or by introducing a pre-ionizing voltage before the HiPIMS pulse as shown in the works of Velicu et al [25] and Tiron et al [31,124]. The delay between the negative and positive pulses, , also changes the amount of accelerated ions.…”

Section: Bipolar Hipimsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…This technique allows for the tuning of the energy distribution of ions without the use of a substrate bias [25][26][27]. This also opens more possibilities to enhance, by energetic-ion bombardment, the quality of thin films grown on substrates that are challenging to bias or are by default grounded [28][29][30][31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineered ion-bombardment as a tool in thin film deposition

Viloan

2021

Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Dissertations

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“…The maximum hardness of DLC coatings obtained using Ne was 45 GPa, significantly higher than the hardness of the coatings obtained using Ar, 25 GPa [22]. In more recent contributions it was also shown that the ionization degree of C can be increased by using positive pulses in the afterglow of HiPIMS [23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

A Strategy for Alleviating Micro Arcing during HiPIMS Deposition of DLC Coatings

et al. 2020

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In this work, we investigate the use of high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) for the deposition of micrometer thick diamond like carbon (DLC) coatings on Si and steel substrates. The adhesion on both types of substrates is ensured with a simple Ti interlayer, while the energy of impinging ions is adjusted by using RF (Radio Frequency) biasing on the substrate at −100 V DC self-bias. Addition of acetylene to the working Ar+Ne atmosphere is investigated as an alternative to Ar sputtering, to improve process stability and coatings quality. Peak current is maintained constant, providing reliable comparison between different deposition conditions used in this study. The main advantages of adding acetylene to the Ar+Ne gas mixture are an increase of deposition rate by a factor of 2, when comparing to the Ar+Ne process. Moreover, a decrease of the number of surface defects, from ~40% surface defects coverage to ~1% is obtained, due to reduced arcing. The mechanical and tribological properties of the deposited DLC films remain comparable for all investigated gas compositions. Nanoindentation hardness of all coatings is in the range of 25 to 30 GPa, friction coefficient is between 0.05 and 0.1 and wear rate is in the range of 0.47 to 0.77 × 10−6 mm3 N−1m−1.

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Overcoming the insulating materials limitation in HiPIMS: Ion-assisted deposition of DLC coatings using bipolar HiPIMS

Cited by 47 publications

References 21 publications

Pulse length selection for optimizing the accelerated ion flux fraction of a bipolar HiPIMS discharge

Pulse length selection for optimizing the accelerated ion flux fraction of a bipolar HiPIMS discharge

Engineered ion-bombardment as a tool in thin film deposition

A Strategy for Alleviating Micro Arcing during HiPIMS Deposition of DLC Coatings

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