Plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition of titanium nitride in a capacitively coupled radio-frequency discharge

Abstract

A new type of plasma reactor for the plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD) of titanium nitride (TiN) was designed and built. The reactor uses a rf discharge operating at a pressure ∼1 mbar and at a frequency of 13.56 MHz. The dependence of various properties of the coating produced on the deposition parameters is studied in detail. Besides a determination of the thickness of the coating different analytical techniques such as Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been used to characterize the coating. In order to investigate mechanical properties of the deposit, Vickers hardness and critical load have been determined. TiN coatings of excellent quality have been deposited on all surfaces of objects of complex geometry. The quality of these coatings is equivalent to the quality obtained by classical CVD and physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques. The deposition temperature of 500 °C permits the coating of hardened steel tools.