| Pacific Rim Symposium on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces (PacSurf 2016) | |
| Biomaterial Surfaces & Interfaces | Thursday Sessions |
| Session BI-ThM |
| Session: | Plasma for Biomedical Applications |
| Presenter: | Joerg Patscheider, Empa, Switzerland |
| Authors: | K. Thorwarth, Empa, Switzerland S. Jin, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, Republic of Korea S. Gauter, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Germany J. Patscheider, Empa, Switzerland |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The metallization of polymer substrates by metallic titanium films provides many attractive applications, e.g. in biomedical applications. In contrast to conventional techniques in orthopaedic implants such as plasma spraying, which lead to a high thermal load of the substrates' surface and thereby to the undesired loss of surface structural feature, magnetron sputter deposited films maintain the surface topography of PEEK substrates
In this work Ti coatings were deposited on PEEK (polyether ether ketone) by chopped HiPIMS, a technique where HiPIMS pulses are decomposed into a sequence of short micropulses. The combination of these pulse trains distinctly influence the properties of titanium coatings prepared by this technique. The plasma was characterized using voltage/current measurements, optical emission spectroscopy and Langmuir probing, along with caloric measurements during deposition. The prepared coatings were examined using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is shown that the pulse sequence is decisive for the applicability of Ti coatings on polymeric substrates, as it strongly influences properties such as process stability, deposition rate, morphology and thermal load during deposition, which can be improved with respect to standard HiPIMS and DC sputter deposition. The coatings' microstructure shows increased smoothening of the coating surface and shallower surface oxidation for samples deposited using chopped HiPIMS