Development of X-Shaped Filtered-Arc-Deposition (X-FAD) Apparatus and DLC/Cr Film Preparation

Abstract

An X-shaped filtered-arc-deposition (X-FAD) apparatus was developed in order to prepare hydrogen-free tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C), which is a kind of diamond-like carbon (DLC), and metal film as a binding interlayer on the superhard alloy using a plasma beam irradiated from the same direction. First of all, the droplet-reduction performance was verified, and then, the appropriate duct-bias voltages and deposition rate were measured. Optima of duct biases for chromium (Cr) and DLC were found to be +25 and +15 V, respectively. From the result of X-ray diffraction analysis, it was found that Cr film that is prepared at a higher substrate-bias voltage was well crystallized and has less internal stress. The appropriate substrate bias for preparing ta-C was −100 to −200 V. DLC film was also prepared with substrate heating. It was found that ta-C could be prepared at a substrate temperature of less than 200 • C, and the film was graphitized at higher temperature. By following these results, 2.5-µm-thick ta-C film was prepared on a superhard alloy with an interlayer by X-FAD.Index Terms-Binding interlayer, chromium (Cr) film, diamond-like carbon (DLC), hydrogen-free tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C), X-shape filtered-arc-deposition (X-FAD) system.

60 years of DLC coatings: Historical highlights and technical review of cathodic arc processes to synthesize various DLC types, and their evolution for industrial applications

“…-increasing the deposition rate using a single cathode material [111,140], -depositing a metallic bonding layer followed by a carbon coating [141,142],…”

“…20c. It provides two bending angles of 90° for each cathode, in an special S-configuration also called a "crank" type filter [85,141].…”

T-shape filtered arc deposition system with built-in electrostatic macro-particle trap for DLC film preparation

“…The authors have developed a unique T-shape filtered arc deposition (T-FAD) system [10], which can prepare various kinds of DLC films [11,12]. Unlike other FADs, T-FAD has a droplet collection part facing the cathode, where the droplets are caught.…”

DC vacuum arc deposition with open winding-path anode assembled with C-ring plates

“…[10][11][12] The latter strategy is based on the fact that the plasma is transported with the magnetic field while droplets may be too massive to be transported with the magnetic field. The latter strategy is called the Filtered Arc Deposition (FAD) method [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and is the main topic of this paper.…”

“…To address the issue of the reflection, the filters can be classified into two types, 10) closed filters and open filters. The closed filter 17,[19][20][21][22] usually consists of a duct surrounded by a magnetic field coil. Though droplets reflect many times at the wall, their energies are lost on the path and they become filtered.…”