Integrated Ferroelectrics, 136:3542, 2012

Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1058-4587 print / 1607-8489 online
DOI: 10.1080/10584587.2012.686729

Properties of DLC Film Deposited on Mould

with Micro-Cavity Used in Microforming

CHUNJU WANG,1,2, BIN GUO,1,2 DEBIN SHAN,1,2

AND HUA ZHANG1
1
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology,
Harbin 150001, China
2
Key Laboratory of Micro-systems and Micro-Structures Manufacturing
(Ministry of Education), Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

Micro-forming as a kind of metal forming process is very suitable for massive produc-
tion of micro-parts with high mechanical properties. To eliminate the scaling effects
of friction in micro-forming, diamond-like carbon (DLC) film of nano-thickness was
deposited on the micro mould with plasma based ion implantation and deposition
(PBII&D) method for its excellent tribological behaviors. The effects of mould cavity
dimensions were investigated, for example distribution of thickness, surface topogra-
phy and microstructure of DLC film. The result shows that the thickness of DLC film
decreases from 554 nm to 47 nm with the increasing of depth into mould cavity. And
ripple topography appears when the cavity dimension is small. The ratio between ID
and IG increases with the increasing of cavity dimension, which means that the amount
of SP3 bonds becomes smaller. With the DLC film deposited female die, micro-cups of
1.1 mm in diameter were manufactured successfully using copper thin sheet of 0.04 mm
in thickness with a blanking-deep drawing process. And the surface quality and dimen-
sion accuracy of micro-cup were analyzed in details. The results show that DLC film is
feasible alternative to micro-forming.

Keywords Micro-forming; thin solid film; DLC film; scaling effect; micro-cup

1. Introduction
Micro-forming is an appropriate massive production technology for very small metal parts
with at least two dimensions in the sub-millimeter range. During the miniaturization of parts,
scaling effects occurs clearly, and the traditional knowledge of macro metal forming can
not be transferred into micro-forming directly. One of the scaling effects is the coefficient
of friction for the increasing of ratio between surface and volume of micro-parts when a
liquid lubricant is applied [1, 2]. For low friction and wear rate, diamond-like carbon (DLC)
film attracts more attentions in recent decade. Lackner employed a pulsed laser deposition
method and investigated the structural, mechanical and tribological properties of DLC film
coated on several kinds of steel substrates for industrial applications [3]. A metal coaxial
radio-frequency (RF) electrode was utilized to produce plasma and deposit film onto the
inner wall of the tubes. The non-uniformity of thickness of deposited films and plasma

Received in final form August 4, 2011.

Corresponding author. E-mail: cjwang1978@hit.edu.cn

[205]/35
36/[206] Chunju Wang et al.

density in the bore were investigated with tubes of different lengths and inner diameters
[4]. To deposit on the inner surface of micro-hole, the effect of argon gas was discussed and
a micro-coating method was discovered [5]. In micro-forming process, DLC film on surface
of the die was deposited by Yang to improve wear-resistance and reduce friction, and a
micro single-side bending test was carried out for evaluation of wear-resistance of the DLC
film [6, 7]. When the micro-extrusion mould was deposited by DLC film, the maximum
extrusion force decreased from 32kN for uncoated die to 25 kN [8]. In our research group,
DLC film was applied to micro-deep drawing, and the micro-cup of large limit drawing
ratio was deep drawn successfully [9].
In the paper, a nano-thickness of DLC film was deposited on the inner surface of micro-
cavity. The effect of die cavity dimension was investigated. With DLC coated mould, the
micro-cup of 1.1 mm in diameter was deep drawn successfully with 0.04 mm copper thin
sheet.

2. Foundation of Experiment
A serial of two-body moulds with micro-channel were manufactured with the tool steel
JIS-SKD11. The widths t of micro-channel are different from 0.6 mm to 1.2 mm, and the
radius R of edge corner at opening side is 0.3 mm as shown in Fig. 1. To improve the
adhesion between DLC film and mould, the surface of cavity was polished to Ra 0.1m.
The DLC film was deposited on surface of mould by the plasma based ion implantation
and deposition (PBII&D) process. Before the deposition of DLC film, a very thin nitrogen
layer as buffer film was formed at the base pressure of 0.3 Pa and pulse voltage of 15 kv.
Then, the DLC film was deposited with pulse voltage of 15 kv, and radio-frequency power
was selected as 200 w.
The surface topography and cross section of DLC film were observed by a SEM
(HITACHI, S-4300), and the thickness of film was calculated using the comparing rule.
The microstructure was analyzed with Raman spectra (JY, HR800) with excitation laser
wavelength of 532 nm at power of 0.1 mw.
To locate small specimen accurately, a complex blanking-deep drawing multiple oper-
ation mould was developed as shown in reference 9. The first step is preparing a thin sheet

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of two-body mold.

 Properties of DLC Film [207]/37

specimen of 2.0 mm in diameter using blanking method. Then, the specimen was deep
drawn to a micro-cup of 1.1 mm in the inner diameter with the limit deep drawing ratio of
1.8. The pure copper thin sheet of 0.04 mm in thickness was selected in the investigation.
To analyze the quality of micro-cup, the SEM and confocal laser scanning microscope
(Olympus, OLS3000) was applied.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Distribution of DLC Film Thickness

The thickness of DLC film at different points on inner surface of micro-cavity was measured,
and the results are shown in Table 1. With the increasing of depth into micro-cavity from
top surface, the thickness of DLC film decreases quickly. When the depth reaches 0.43 mm,
the thickness of DLC film is reduced to 48 nm, which is less than one tenth of that at top
surface. In the following, the thicknesses of DLC are almost the same. From the distribution
of thickness, it is found that DLC film is difficultly deposited on the inner surface of micro-
cavity. Fortunately, the thickness of DLC film is big at the corner of opening side, which is
big enough for the application in micro-deep drawing process to reduce the friction.

3.2 Surface Topography of DLC Film

When the width of micro-channel is 0.6 mm, the surface topography of DLC film at
top surface and inner surface are both observed with SEM as shown in Fig. 2. From the
photograph of top surface, the DLC film is very compact, which means that DLC film
possesses good mechanical and tribological properties. However, the DLC film at inner
surface of micro-cavity is different. Ripple topography appears clearly at the depth of
0.5 mm. And the direction of ripple is parallel with the length direction of micro-channel
and the top surface of micro-mould. With the increasing of the depth, the ripple topography
was transferred into a group of islands. This means that the ripple only occurs at a specifical
depth on the inner surface. When the width of channel is changed to 0.8 mm, the situation is
different as shown in Fig. 3. The ripple also appears on surface at point of 1.0 mm in depth.
The results shown above indicates that the width of channel and depth into micro-cavity
have obvious effects on the forming of ripple. The reason is not clear now, but it is worth
of investigating in future.
For the existing of ripple and island structure at inner surface, the mechanical properties
and adhesion with substrate decreases obviously, which is not helpful for application in
micro-forming.

Table 1
Thickness of DLC film at points of different depth

Depth/mm 0 0.12 0.43 0.49

Thickness/nm 554 335 48 47
38/[208] Chunju Wang et al.

Figure 2. Surface topography of film coated on micro-mould (t = 0.6 mm) for (a) Top surface, (b)
Inner surface at depth of 0.5mm, (c) Inner surface at depth of 1.0 mm, (d) Inner surface at depth of
1.5 mm.

3.4 Microstructure of DLC Film

The microstructure of DLC film has an obvious effect on properties. The Raman spectrum
is a common method in analysis of DLC film microstructure. The Raman spectra of DLC
film on inner surface under different channel widths were obtained as shown in Fig. 4.

Figure 3. Surface topography of DLC film coated on micro-mould (t = 0.8 mm) for (a) Inner surface
at depth of 0.5 mm, (b) Inner surface at depth of 1.0 mm.
 Properties of DLC Film [209]/39

ID/IG G
25000
0.6mm 2.86
0.8mm 2.94 D
20000 1.0mm 2.57
1.2mm 2.49
1.4mm 2.31

Intensity (a.u.)
15000

10000

5000

0
800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000

Raman shift( cm-1)

Figure 4. Raman spectra under different width of micro-channel.

To analyze the results in details, two kinds of measurement points, which depths into
micro-cavity from the top surface are 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm, are selected. The ratio between
ID and IG are calculated using the Gauss fitting curves to analyze the relative amount
of SP3 bonds and SP2 bonds. The results show that the ratio of ID/IG decreases with the
increase of channel width, which means that the amount of SP3 bonds becomes larger. So,
the mechanical properties of DLC film on micro-cavity of big width are better than that of
small width. When the width of channel is 1.4 mm, the ratio of ID/IG is close to 2.23 of top
surface. It indicates that the properties of DLC film on inner surface near to the top surface
are almost the same as that of top surface. It is very suitable for application in micro-deep
drawing.

11000

ID/IG G
10000
0.5mm 2.86
9000 1.0mm 2.89
1.5mm 3.01 D
8000
Intensity (a.u.)

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000

Raman shift( cm-1)

Figure 5. Raman spectra under different depths into micro-cavity.

40/[210] Chunju Wang et al.

Figure 6. Micro-cup dawn with DLC coated die.

The effect of depths into micro-cavity is shown in Fig. 5. When the depth is small,
the ratio of ID/IG is almost the same. However, when the depth increases to 1.5 mm, the
ratio of ID/IG becomes big. The reason is that the energy of ion decreases quickly with the
increasing of depth into micro-cavity.

3.5 Application of DLC Film in Micro-Deep Drawing

The DLC film was deposited on the contact surface of female die and blank holder. A serial
of micro-cups of 1.1 mm in diameter was successfully deep drawn with smooth surface in

55
PE Film
DLC Film
50
Thickness (P)

45

40

35

30
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Measure points

Figure 7. Thickness of sheet near bottom corner the micro-cup.

 Properties of DLC Film [211]/41

the rim as shown in Fig. 6. The result is compared with that obtained on lubrication of PE
film which possesses very lower coefficient of friction as a solid lubricant. The fact that
the punch load is almost the same means that DLC film owns super tribological properties.
And the surface quality is better than that using PE film. The reason is that PE film is easily
broken and accumulated at the corner of female die, and it leads to wrinkles in the rim of
micro-cup.
The thickness of wall was measured at different corner points of micro-cup as shown
in Fig. 7. From point 6 to 14, the results show the reduction of thickness at the bottom
corner of micro-up. When the PE film is applied, the reduction of thickness is much bigger
than that of DLC film. The micro-cup obtained with PE film becomes easily broken for
the small strength induced by the big reduction of thickness. The comparison between
DLC film and PE film indicates that the DLC film is very suitable for the micro-deep
drawing.

4. Conclusions
DLC film was deposited on micro mould used in micro-forming with PBII&D. With
the increasing of depth into micro-cavity, the thickness of DLC film decreases quickly.
Fortunately, the thickness of DLC film is big at the corner of opening side. The width of
channel and depth into micro-cavity have obvious effects on the forming of ripple on the
inner surface of micro-cavity. The ratio ID/IG decreases with the increasing of the channel
width and depth into micro-cavity, which means that the amount of SP3 bonds becomes
larger. With DLC coated mould, the micro-cup was successfully deep drawn with smooth
surface in rim and small reduction of thickness at bottom corner.

Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Science Founda-
tion of China (No. 50835002 and No. 50805035), the Foundation for Innovation Scholars
of Harbin (2008RFQXG041) and Key Laboratory Opening Funding of Micro-systems and
Micro-structures Manufacturing (Ministry of Education) (HIT. KLOF. 2009008). Authors
would like to thank Prof. Xiubo Tian for the help of DLC film deposition.

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