AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Advanced Surface Engineering Division Thursday Sessions
       Session SE+PS+SS-ThM

Paper SE+PS+SS-ThM3
Depositions of Al2O3 Coatings by HiPIMS via Closed-loop Control using a Plasma Emission Monitoring Sensor

Thursday, November 2, 2017, 8:40 am, Room 11

Session: Plasma-assisted Surface Modification and Deposition Processes
Presenter: Jianliang Lin, Southwest Research Institute
Authors: J. Lin, Southwest Research Institute
R. Wei, Southwest Research Institute
K. Coulter, Southwest Research Institute
F. Papa, Gencoa Ltd.
Correspondent: Click to Email
Reactive sputtering of insulating oxide coatings, e.g. alumina (Al2O3),by high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) is of great interest, as the increased target ionization in HiPIMS can be used for improving the structure and properties of the coatings. Typically there are two challenges for the process including arc suppression and overcoming the decreased deposition rate due to target poisoning. In this paper, Al2O3 coatings were reactively sputtered by HiPIMS with deep oscillatory pulses using closed-loop control of oxygen partial pressure to achieve high deposition rates. Stable and Arc-free deposition processes were obtained with a peak target current density up to 1.2 Acm-2 by optimizing key pulsing parameters of deep oscillating pulses. The closed-loop control was achieved by controlling oxygen partial pressure from a remote plasma emission monitoring (PEM) sensor which ionizes sample plasma away from the deposition zone. The deposition rate, microstructure and properties of the Al2O3 coatings deposited at different oxygen partial pressures and HiPIMS peak target current densities were investigated and compared to those obtained by traditional pulsed dc.