AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Advanced Surface Engineering Tuesday Sessions
       Session SE+MS+TF-TuA

Invited Paper SE+MS+TF-TuA10
Innovations in Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Technologies for Surface Engineering

Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 5:20 pm, Room 101C

Session: Innovations in PVD, CVD, Atmospheric Pressure Plasma and Other Surface Technologies
Presenter: David Ruzic, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Authors: D.N. Ruzic, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Y.L. Wu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
L. Na, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
S. Hammouti, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
I.A. Shchelkanov, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Correspondent: Click to Email
The growing need for high efficiency-low cost coating tools for large area surfaces drives research efforts for development of innovative techniques. One of the options is an Evaporative Coating at Atmospheric Pressure process (ECAP). The principal of this deposition method is an evaporation of a material, with-in a plasma environment. The appealing advantage of this deposition technique is its atomic nature, and its environmentally safe process as no harmful chemicals compounds are used. With ECAP the evaporated material atoms end up deposited molecule-by-molecule or atom-by-atom as in a Physical Vapor Deposition but without the need for a vacuum chamber. This effect is achieved by using a thermal energy from the microwave plasma, when solid 99.99%+ purity metallic and ceramic target such as Al, Sn, Cr, Au, Ag and AlCl3 could be evaporated and then produce a PVD-like coating on a work piece. The tool is designed to have the evaporated material being submerged into the center of the atmosphere microwave discharge. As the result evaporation occur in a controlled environment where a pure metals can be deposited or their compounds. For example in the aluminum case, a pure alpha phase of Al2O3 can be deposited using oxygen from the environment, or if a metallic coating of such a reactive metal as Al, is desired, the deposition can be performed in an pure Ar argon environment with the help of a special gas curtain. The tool provides deposition rate for metals as high as 1-5 um/min with high adhesion. The measured adhesion for copper on steel was at least 250 g/mm2. The ECAP technology opens broad possibilities for surface processing at atmosphere without environmental impact.