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ELSEVIER
SCIENCE?
0301-679X(
95)00100-X
Jang*+
hard substrate,
Introduction
It has long been recognized that soft coatings improve
the tribological
properties of sliding systems under
certain sliding conditions. However, the fundamental
+Currently
at Samsung Electra-Mechanics
*Department
of Mechanical
Engineering,
206 West 18th Avenue,
Columb~,
OH
*Department
of Mechanical
Engineering,
Korea
Tribology
thermal
Volume
29 Number
4 1996
345
Optimum
film thickness:
D.-S. Jang
Tribology
international
Volume
29 Number
procedures
Scope
In the present study dry friction sliding tests were
conducted with bare silicon and silicon substrate coated
with silver, copper, tin or zinc film. These specimens
were slid against 52100 steel balls using a reciprocating
pin-on-flat
type apparatus. The coating materials
were selected based on their relatively low strength
properties. They also have received much attention as
thin film solid lubricants. The sliding speed was kept
low in order to minimize
the effects of thermal
interactions at the sliding interface. In addition, the
environment was purged with nitrogen gas to minimize
chemical changes of the surfaces during the sliding
tests. All experiments were conducted at room temperature with a relative humidity of 30-40% inside
the chamber. A thermal evaporation technique, which
can produce highly pure films with smooth surfaces,
was used to coat the metallic films. After deposition
the morphology of the films was examined using an
atomic force microscope (AFM), a non-contact surface
profilometer
and a scanning electron microscope
(SEM). Following the sliding tests, the specimens
were examined using various surface characterization
tools such as the SEM, energy dispersive spectroscopy
(EDS), a non-contact surface profilometer,
and an
optical microscope.
Apparatus
The custom-built tribotester shown in Fig 1 was used
to conduct the experiments. This apparatus is capable
of providing either reciprocating
or rotary motion
between the two surfaces and monitoring the friction
coefficient in real time for normal loads ranging from
0.05 to 5 gf. The pin is attached to a spring loaded
arm. The back end of the arm is driven with a closedloop micro-actuator
and a motion controller which
controls the vertical motion of the pin with a resolution
of 0.1 pm. This corresponds to a normal load of 0.003
4 1996
Optimum
film thickness:
Microactuator
Strain Ga&
(For normal
load)
(For friction
\
force)
Sample
Holder
Rotary
Stage
Iu
Linear Stage
Stage Controller
1 Amplifier
and preparation
RM5:
PROFILE
26.4nm
2.5x
649.8nm
WVLEN:
of coatings
0.05
9.85
Illstance
1.65
on
2.44
surface,
3.24
4.04
mllllmeters
Volume
29 Number
4 1996
347
Optimum
film thickness:
Table 1 Material
properties
of silver,
copper,
Material
Youngs
moduIus23 (GPa)
Hardness=
(HV/MPa)
Yield strengthz0-23
IMPa)
Silver
Copper
Tin
Zinc
78
120
44
91
741725
105/1030
6.6164.7
321314
290
344
20.7
110
Measured
with
cold
rolled
metal
flats
using
the microhardness
348
Tribology
of zinc coatings
International
Volume
tester
(25 g, dwell
time:
10 s) after
0.92
1.10
0.57
0.79
polishing
(a) t = 10 nm; (b) t = 100 nm; (c) t = 1000 nm; (d) t = 2000 nm
29 Number
4 1996
Optimum
film thickness:
rJ..tanc.
-14 ial!
Ll. 13.0nm
LMlCro~~
L.-14.anm
WYKC
of the specimens
and adhesion
tests
films
on silicon
substrates
Volume
29 Number
4 1996
349
Optimum
film thickness:
D.-S. Jang
.
I
.
1
1 sto/de
0.0
0.1 Qf
- 0.8
j
0 IQf
0.6
B 0.4
0.5
e
6
.!I0.7
IA 0.3
0.2
0.1
0 I
I,,,,,,
bare silicon
1
,.,.,I
I,
,.I
looo
IO
100
Film thickness
(nm)
.I
I.,
1
0.9
lOlJthc/de
I
bulk
silver
O.lgf
o.af 0.7-
1Qf
H 0.6- 1
g 0.5.
; 0.4-f
0.3-.
Copper films
0.2-
O.lbati
silicon
i
Film thickness
100
(nm)
loo0
bulk
silver
8
20.0
on silicon
Tribology
International
Volume
29 Number
substrates
substrates
Optimum
film thickness:
on silicon
substrates
Volume
29 Number
4 1996
351
Optimum
film thickness:
Is&de
O.lgf
El 0
3 -,e2g-1q
-2.57.
lor
IVV
50
Distance
96
on
143
surface,
109
236
microns
0
1..1..,
bare
silicon
,,,,,,,
.1..,.,
10
Film thickness
.I,.,,(
IIn
100
(nm)
1000
bulk<
pper
lOO(hcyde
I
T
annealedcopper->
,
-11.4
3
50
Distance
96
on
143
surface,
109
236
microns
bare
silicon
lb
Film thickness
4.0
(0
lb0
1600
bulk c&per
(nm)
-4.0
o.o-
-6.0
93
40
138
184
0.6-
229
f
Distance
on
surface,
1 &c/de
I
0.43
0.3%
:
m
z
1!3f
microns
k
+
E
O.lfl
0.7-
B OB- 1.
c 0.5-
v)
11.4
I
m
m
I
0.2-
0.0
tin
-11.4
.
-22.8
51
98
145
192
I-
239
o.oDistance
on
surface,
1OOUlCjdS
microns
Fig 8 Non-contact surface projilometer surface topography of the wear tracks on silicon coated with silver
after sliding for 100 cycles against 52100 steel at 1 gf
load: (a) t = 7 nm; (b) t = 65 nm; (c) t = 680 nm;
(d) bulk silver
0.2-
Tribology
International
Volume
29 Number
O.l0
1.1.111,
bare silicon
1
..I,,.,,
,,,,.,.,
,,,.,.I
IO
100
moo
Film thickness
(nm)
,...bulk
tin
Optimum
discussion
film thickness:
Fig 12 (a) SEM micrograph of the 52100 steel ball after sliding for 100 cycles against a 92 nm thick tin coating at
0.1 gf load; (b) higher magnification of the region indicated by an arrow in Fig 13(a)
Tribology
International
353
Optimum
film thickness:
1.1
Average
film thidtness
.El
0.9
lOOfho/de
O.lQf
0.6f 0.7-
(nm)
Isr
I,
I
Q 0.4H
E
0.3-.
!I'
0.2-
bare silicon
IO
Averege
100
film thickness
1000
bulk zinc
(nm)
(1)
where pL is the friction coefficient of the bulk layer
material, r,,, , 7i,, are the ultimate shear stresses of
the substrate and bulk layer material, respectively, 7,
is the average surface shear stress of the layer and
F(x) is a monotonic function expressed as:
)Q)
= 1 _ 2 b(l+X)--Xl
ln(-X2)
(2)
Fig 15 SEM micrographs of the 52100 steel balls after sliding for 100 cycles against: (a) a 10 nm thick zinc coating
at 1 gf load; (b) a 1000 nm thick zinc coating at 1 gf load
354
Tribology
International
Volume
29 Number
4 1996
Optimum
Table 2 Comparison
of experimental
Material
--.~.-~.
Normal
Silver
Copper
Tin
Zinc
___
load (gf)
1
0.1
1
0.1
1
0.1
1
0.1
and theoretical
film thickness:
PL
p (experimental)
0.25
0.28
0.40
0.43
N/A
0.38
0.33
0.36
0.21
0.23
0.22
0.20
N/A
0.29
0.18
0.19
D.-S. Jang
friction
coefficient
p (theoretical)
0.18
0.20
0.29
0.31
N/A
0.27
0.24
0.26
Wiley,
New
I965
Conclusions
In the present study, the frictional behaviour and
optimum film thickness of the thin soft metallic coating
for low load sliding applications have been investigated.
The results of the experimental work show that the
frictional behaviour of the thin soft coating under
relatively low loads depends on the film thickness,
normal load and coating material. Furthermore,
the
morphology of the film as well as the tendency of the
film material to transfer to the pin also affected the
frictional behaviour of the thin soft coating. It has
also shown that the values of the optimum
film
Tribology
39, 5385-5395
4.
International
355
Optimum
film thickness:
D.-S. Jang
356
Tribology
International