Surface Engineering

Subject Code: PI-607

Unit-III: Surface Coatings

Part-III (PVD and CVD Processes)

By
Dr. Tushar Banerjee
Assistant Professor
Production & Industrial Engineering
NIT Jamshedpur
 Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) and
Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)
• PVD and CVD are techniques for deposition of thin film coatings (approx. thickness
few nanometers to few microns)
• PVD process has different variants as follows
- Electron Beam Evaporation
- Cathodic Arc Evaporation
- Sputtering (Direct Current (DC), Radio Frequency (RF), Magnetron)
- Ion Beam Deposition
- Pulsed Laser Deposition
- Hybrid/Modified PVD Processes
• CVD process has also different variants as follows
- Conventional CVD
- Plasma Enhanced CVD (PECVD)
- Low/Moderate temperature CVD
Applications of PVD and CVD coatings
1. Cutting Tools
2. Metal Forming Tools
3. Anti-Corrosion Coatings
4. Optical Coatings
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5. Magnetic Coatings
 Role of coating in cutting tools
Crater Wear

Flank Wear

Coating Rake Requirements for an ideal cutting tool coating

 Good adhesion with substrate
 High hot-hardness
Flank

 Anti-friction/anti-sticking property
WC Substrate
 Chemical inertness to work material at
high cutting temperature
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Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD)

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 Electron Beam Evaporation
Electron Beam Evaporation is PVD process.
Electron beams generated from electron guns are
directed to evaporate ingots, and also for
preheating of the substrate within the vacuum
chamber. Evaporation is carried out in vacuum.

Fig. 1. Electron Beam Evaporation Process

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 Fig. 2. Sputtering Process
1. Vacuum inside deposition chamber: Approx. 10-7 Torr (Atmospheric pressure = 760 Torr)
2. Vacuum is created by combination of rotary pumps and diffusion pump or turbomolecular pump
3. Inert gas like Ar is introduced into the chamber and ionized by applying large potential
difference between cathode and chamber wall
4. Source of coating material is placed at cathode i.e. negatively connected terminal so that
positively charged Ar+ ions hit and eject materials through momentum transfer
5. Substrate may be grounded or may be connected to negative terminal of another power source
to attract Ar+ ions to bombard the growing film to make it compact
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 Fig. 3. Coating deposition by sputtering

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Fig. 4. Bombardment of ions on target surface in sputtering
Fig. 5. Glow Discharge Plasma (LEFT), Mg film deposited on Si substrate (RIGHT)

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 Direct Current (DC) Sputtering
The simplest sputtering system
called DC sputtering is shown in
Fig. 6. It consists of cathode (the
target) and anode (on which
substrates are placed) facing each
other. This arrangement suffered
from the disadvantages like low
deposition rate, high operating
voltages, and low ionization
efficiency.

Fig. 6. Direct Current (DC) sputtering

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 Magnetron Sputtering

Fig. 7.

Fig. 8. Balanced Magnetron Sputtering

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 Magnetron Sputtering
Sputtering first achieved widespread use in research and industrial applications with
the introduction of magnetron sputtering. An arrangement of magnets behind the
target material made it possible to confine the highly energetic, ionization-producing
electrons in front of the cathode target. The magnetic field trapped the electrons by
closing the (E X B ) electron drift currents (as shown in Fig. 7) on themselves.
Magnetron sputtering (balanced magnetron sputtering) (Fig. 8) overcame the
disadvantages of the previously used planar diode sputtering.

By suitable application of magnetic field, the electrons can be deflected to stay near
the target surface, and by an appropriate arrangement of magnets the electrons can
be made to circulate on a closed path on the target surface. This high flux of electrons
creates high density plasma near the target surface giving rise to an increase in
ionization probability.

Depending upon the strengths of inner and outer magnets used, magnetron
sputtering is classified into balanced and unbalanced magnetron sputtering. A
schematic diagram showing unbalanced magnetron sputtering is shown in Fig. 9.
When the strengths of the inner and outer magnets are equal the magnetic field is
said to be balanced. This balanced magnetron was mainly developed for
microelectronic applications, where bombardment of growing film by energetic
particles was to be avoided. 11
 Magnetron Sputtering

Fig. 9. Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering

Fig. 10. Mirror-field Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering Fig. 11. Closed-field Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering
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 Magnetron Sputtering
Despite the benefits offered by unbalanced magnetron, it is still difficult to
uniformly coat complex geometry cutting tools at acceptable rates from a single
source. Also, single cathode system cannot accommodate large tools like broaches
and results in layered structure even with substrate rotation. Therefore, in order
to commercially exploit this technology, multiple magnetrons system has been
introduced. In a multiple magnetron system, the magnetic arrays in adjacent or
facing magnetrons can be configured with either identical, or opposite magnetic
polarities. In the former case, the configuration is described as ‘mirrored’ and in
the latter case ‘closed-field’ which are shown in Figs. 10 and 11 respectively. In the
mirrored case, the field lines are directed towards the chamber walls. Secondary
electrons following these lines are lost, resulting in a low plasma density in the
substrate region. Conversely, in the closed-field configuration, the field lines are
linked between the magnetrons. Losses to the chamber walls are low and the
substrate lies in a high density plasma region. Closing of the fields forms a
magnetic trap that is very effective in confining the electrons to the region
between the cathodes. This results in high ion current densities leading to high
levels of ion bombardment of the growing film.

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 Radio Frequency (RF) Sputtering
The development of RF sputter deposition technique made it possible to
deposit films from non-conducting sputter targets like MoS2, WS2 which can
not be sputtered using the DC power source due to charge accumulation on
the target surface. The scheme of RF sputtering is shown in Fig. 12. The
typical frequency employed in RF sputtering is 13.56 MHz.

Fig. 12. Radio Frequency (RF) Sputtering

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Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)

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Chemical Vapour Deposition

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Chemical Vapour Deposition

Fig. 13. Schematic of Chemical Vapour Deposition Process

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Chemical Vapour Deposition

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 Chemical Vapour Deposition
Types of CVD Reactions:

1. Thermal decomposition reaction

2. Reduction reaction
3. Exchange reaction
4. Disproportionation reaction
5. Coupled reactions

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Chemical Vapour Deposition

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Chemical Vapour Deposition

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Chemical Vapour Deposition

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Chemical Vapour Deposition

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Chemical Vapour Deposition

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 Chemical Vapour Deposition

Gas Cylinders To Atmosphere

Fig. 14. Chemical Vapour Deposition System

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 Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD)
Plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) take advantage of the high energy electrons present in
glow discharges to dissociate and ionize gaseous molecules to form chemically
reactive radicals and ions. Because thermal energy is not needed to break chemical
bonds, reactions can be promoted at lower temperatures thereby avoiding substrate
damage.

In PECVD System we use a mixture of gases to form the plasma to deposit the film
onto the substrate. First the PECVD chamber is pumped down to approx. 1 mTorr to
provide a clean environment for deposition. Next, the source gases are flown into the
chamber. Different gases are used to deposit different materials like SiO2, SiN2 etc. The
pressure inside the chamber after introduction of gases may range from mTorr to few
Torr. Then high voltage is applied to the RF electrode to ionize the gas molecules.
These ionization process makes the molecules of the gases more reactive and then
they react to form a thin layer of material on the substrate.

The main advantage of PECVD of conventional CVD is that the former uses much less
temperature inside the reactor (approx. 200° C) as compared to conventional CVD
process (approx. 1000° C). Less temperature is required because the gas molecules are
elevated to a more reactive state through the process of ionization, rather than only
thermal activation in case of conventional CVD. 26
 Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD)

(b)
(a)

Fig. 15. (a) Outer view of a PECVD chamber (b) Inner view of a PECVD chamber

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 Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD)

Examples of PECVD Reactions:

(a) PECVD of SiNx
SiHx + NHx SiNx (+H2)
or SiHx + N SiNx (+H2)
(b) PECVD of SiOx
SiHx + N2O SiOx (+H2 + N2)
(c) PECVD of SiONx
SiHx + N2O + NH3 SiONx (+H2 + N2)

Types of SiH4 Supply

SiH4 can be supplied as either pure SiH4 or diluted in an ‘inert’ carrier gas ,
typically N2, Ar, He.
Typical percentage dilutions are 5%, or 2% or 10%.

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Thank You

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