Surface Free Energy of Alloy Nitride Coatings Deposited Using Closed Field Unbalanced Magnetron Sputter Ion Plating

Abstract

The sticking of product material to injection molding tools is a serious problem, which reduces productivity and reliability. Depositing alloy nitride coatings (TiN, ZrN, CrN, and TiAlCrN) using closed field unbalanced magnetron sputter ion plating and electrodeposition of chromium, and characterizing their surface free energies in the temperature range 20-120 C have led to the development of a non-sticking (with a low surface free energy) coating system for semiconductor IC packaging molding dies. The contact angles of water, diiodomethane and ethylene glycol on the coated surfaces were measured at temperatures in the range 20-120 C using a Dataphysics OCA-20 contact angle analyzer. The surface free energy of the coatings and their components (dispersion and polar) were calculated using the Owens-Wendt geometric mean approach. The surface roughness of these coatings were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The adhesion force of these coatings were measured using direct tensile pull-off test apparatus. The experimental results revealed that TiAlCrN, CrN and ZrN coatings outperformed Hard-Cr and TiN coatings in terms of anti-adhesion, and thus have the potential as working layers for injection molding industrial equipment, especially in semiconductor IC packaging molding applications.

Wettability and corrosion of [NTf2] anion-based ionic liquids on steel and PVD (TiN, CrN, ZrN) coatings

“…Table 3. Surface free energy of the surfaces at 293K [62,66]. In the case of ZrN, despite of its low polar component, the high total energy value leads to a lower contact angle than expected.…”

An atmospheric‐pressure plasma‐treated titanium surface potentially supports initial cell adhesion, growth, and differentiation of cultured human prenatal‐derived osteoblastic cells

“…In addition, it has been reported that N 2 plasma treatment causes Ti-N bonding, resulting in the formation of a hydrophilic TiN layer at or near the surface. 19,25 Furthermore, as shown in other sources, 19 we determined that our N 2 -APP system roughened the CP-cpTi surfaces at the 10 nm level. These results indicated that the combination of chemical and topographical modifications is potentially sufficient to increase surface wettability and protein adsorption.…”

“…24,25 This hydrophilic layer formation could also contribute to the increased surface wettability, along with the reduced relative content of carbon. In this study, we used an EDS to analyze the elemental compositions of the CP-cpTi surfaces.…”

TiN/(Al,Sc)N metal/dielectric superlattices and multilayers as hyperbolic metamaterials in the visible spectral range

“…MgO is less than 1%, the interface is coherent and lattice planes are matched resulting in a small 18 (~63 mJ/m 2 ) compared to most elemental metals, (Al,Sc)N is likely to have even lower surface energy and sharper cusps in the Wulff plot, as it is a semiconductor with saturated bonds and high ionicity. Under these conditions, the free (Al,Sc)N surface would be expected to be faceted to a greater degree than the free TiN surface.…”