152 Surface and Coatings Technology, 59 (1993) 152—155

Arc-enhanced glow discharge in vacuum arc machines

Jorg Vetter, Wolfgang Burgmer and Anthony J. Perry~

Multi-Arc Oberflachentechnik G.m.b.H., Am Böttcherberg 30—38, W-5060 Bergisch Glad bach I (Germany)

Abstract
Vacuum cathodic arc evaporation is well established for the industrial deposition of a variety of hard and metallic coatings for
different applications. The standard heating and ion-cleaning processes are easily carried out by the metal ion bombardment
generated by the vacuum arc.
A novel method for heating and ion cleaning based on a dense argon plasma produced by the electrons from the vacuum arc is
presented, namely the arc-enhanced glow discharge (AEGD).
In addition to selected plasma parameters, some characteristic features of TiN coatings deposited by AEGD surface conditioning
are presented.

1. Introduction other gases are used. Table 1 summarizes the different

The use of the vacuum cathodic arc to deposit hard
and metallic coatings is an industrially well established
and successful method, with users and/or producers of
machines in all industrialized countries [l—4].
Applications cover a variety of tools, machine elements
and consumer goods for wear and friction reduction as
well as for decorative purposes. One of the most impor-
tant steps in physical vapour deposition (PYD) technol-
ogy is the conditioning, i.e. heating and etching, of the
substrate surfaces by means of ion bombardment. This
is necessary to achieve a sufficient adherence of the
coating. In conventional arc technology the metal ions
generated by the arc evaporation are used for the
conditioning. In some cases glow discharges in argon or
TABLE 1. Methods for substrate conditioning in PVD machines, i.e.
for heating and cleaning by ion etching
Substrate-conditioning processes
A Standard metal ion bombardment: heating+cleaning,
106_lO5 mbar
B Glow discharges (Ar, H
2, (He)~(N2)) . gas for the AEGD process is introduced into the cham-
B I Low pressure 10 —10 mbar: heating + cleaning
B2 High pressure 1—10 mbar: heating + A or BI or D
• 6 x 10-2 to 3 Pa. The vacuum arc was started using the
C Radiant heater: heating + A or BI or D
methods used to heat and to etch.
This paper presents a novel method for the condition-
ing of the substrates: the arc-enhanced glow discharge
[5]. This method opens up the possibility of selecting
the appropriate ion bombardment conditioning appro-
priate to the substrates to be coated. Besides the physical
principle, some characteristic features are presented.
The investigations include the measurement of typical
process parameters, Langmuir probe measurements and
the measurement of the etch depth as well as investiga-
tions of properties of the coating substrate.
2. Experimental details
The physical principle of the AEGD is based on the
generation of gas ions from the inelastic collisions
between electrons generated in the arc and gas ions in
the plasma (argon or other gases). The AEGD equipment
consists of a shutter in front of one arc evaporator and
a separate anode with an additional power supply
(Fig. 1). This equipment was built into a commercial
MAOG PVD 32 arc machine [6]. Argon as the process
ber. The argon pressure was varied in the range from
.

standard triggering unit.

New conditioning process A significant number of the electrons generated by the
• • . vacuum arc are accelerated to the separate anode which
D Arc-enhanced glow discharge: heating + cleaning, Ar . . .

4 x 10~—4x 10~2mbar is under a positive potential with respect to the anode

of the vacuum arc. The ionization degree of the gas
*permanent address: A.J.M.S. Consulting, 1005 Turnberry Circle, increases with the number of accelerated electrons.
Louisville, CO 80027, USA. The substrates were held at a negative substrate

0257—8972/93/$6.00 © 1993 — Elsevier Sequoia. All rights reserved

 3. Vetter et a!.
o...100v
O...300A
~ __________
— //1~I~..II
0... 40V
0...300A
5 ________
________
Fig. I. Schematic construction of the AEGD unit: 1, separate anode;
2, shutter; 3, gas inlet system; 4, cathodes; 5, substrate holder; 6, sub-
strates; 7, vacuum chamber; 8, to high vacuum pumping system.
voltage to attract the positively charged Ar ions which
are produced.
The Langmuir probe measurement was carried out
by a small metal wire using an automatized measuring
unit [7].
The etch depths after the conditioning phase were
measured by a Sloan Dectak hA, profilometer.
Different hard coatings were deposited on polished
high speed steel (HSS) and hard metal samples following
standard procedures. The critical loads for adhesion
were measured by an LSRH-Revetest automatic scratch
test unit. The coating roughness was measured by a
Perthometer.
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.1. Discharge characteristics
Figure 2 shows the substrate current vs. the activation
power of the separate anode. The activation power is
given by the product of anode voltage and anode current.
The maximum applied activation power was limited
only by construction details of the AEGD equipment.
The substrate current densities are estimated to be in
the approximate range 1.2 ±0.4 mA cm2.
Figure 2 demonstrates that the activation energy and
with it the substrate current (or the substrate current
density) can be varied in a range of about one order of
magnitude. It was found that the substrate current is
nearly independent of the substrate voltage,
/ Arc-enhanced glow discharge 153
10~
8.
01 i I I I I
0... 40V 0,1 1 10
0...300A
ACTIVATION POWER [KW]
Fig. 2. Substrate current vs. activation power at the separate anode.
Substrate: hollow cylinder, diameter 310 mm, height 500 mm.
3.2. Selected plasma parameters
In the case of an activation power of about 4 kW
the electron densities at an argon pressure of
(1 ±0.2) x 10 1 Pa were (2.5 ±0.5) x 1010 cm At an ~
argon pressure of 3 Pa they were (5 ±1) x 1010 cm3.
The electron temperature for the low argon pressure
was in the range 4.5 ±1 eV. The electron temperature
drops only slightly to about 1.5 ±0.5 eV with increasing
argon pressure up to 3 Pa.
3.3. Etching capability
The etching rate can be estimated simply from the
equation [8]
E = 6.23
p
where E (nm mm —1) is the etching rate, Ma (g) is the
atomic mass, p (g cm 3) is the density, Y is the sputtering
yield as a function of the ion energy U and j (mA cm 2)
is the substrate current density.
Figure 3 shows a comparison between the etching
rate for pure iron calculated by means of the average
sputtering yields from refs. 8—10 and the measured
etching rates for two substrate voltages on the planar
areas of small HSS samples (30 x 15 x 5 mm3). A surpris-
ingly close correspondence can be noted especially for
the influence of the ion energy. This fact demonstrates
that the effective ion energy is indeed determined by the
applied substrate voltage.
An important characteristic of the AEGD is the
homogeneity of the ion etching at different positions in
the chamber. Measurements were carried out on rotating
samples which were mounted on different substrate
154 3. Vetter et a!. / Arc-enhanced glow discharge

60 chamber wall, which acts as a positive electrode. For

experiment experim nt the different orientations the following normalized etch-
Ark—.-- HSS ing rates were measured: position 1, 1.0; 2, 1.2; 3, 1.2;
_____________ ______ _____ _____ 4, 1.0; 5, 1.1. This is a very homogeneous etching
/ behaviour.
c2Lculation / Further, we investigated the penetration capability of
Ar —~ Fe / the etching into gap or slit-like geometries by means of
_____ ______ / _____ two bars mutually oriented at angles between 10°and
90°. Figure 5 shows the experimental set-up and Fig. 6
C

experiment _______ ~

Fig. 5. Geometrical arrangement for measurement of the penetration

capacity of the etching effects by varying the angle between two bars.
0 200 400 6o0 600 1000

Ion energy [eV] 1,0

ANGLE
Fig. 3. Etching rate vs. argon ion energy, (or substrate voltage \ ~1 90~
multiplied by elementary charge): calculation for pure iron; measure- 4 1O~
ment for HSS samples. \
\
holders at different heights from the bottom of the 0,8 \~— \
chamber; the maximum spacing between the samples
was 500 mm. There was only a small drop in the etching ~
rate from the lowest to the highest position of about ~
20%.
• . ~0,6 \
Figure 4 shows the geometrical arrangement of ~ \
samples with different orientations with respect to the ~ 3 2 \ 1
\

~ 0 5
— 4 a 0,2
J2’O
DISTANCE I
FROM THE TOP 310
[mm]
3) on a bar Fig. 6. Normalized etching depths on the inner mid-line for various
Fig.
(30 x4.30Positions of smallthesamples (10 x 10 x 3 mm
mm2) to measure spatial etching homogeneity. angles between the two bars of Fig. 5.
 3. Vetter et al.
the measured etching depths normalized to the maxi-
mum etching depth, which is generally at the widest
position for the 90°,60°and 30°arrangements. The data
for 90°and 60°are quite similar and exhibit quite good
penetration along the whole length. The etching rate for
30°is significantly lower than that for the larger angles
but the penetration behaviour is adequate. Even at an
angle of 10° the etching reaches a depth of twice the
opening width. It must be mentioned that the measure-
ments were made on the middle of the bars. At the edges
of the bars etching still occurs even for the smallest angle.
4. TiN coatings
TiN coatings were deposited by standard conditions
on surfaces which were heated and etched by Ti ion
bombardment (time 10 mm) or by the Ar ion bombard-
ment generated by the AEGD process (time 20 ±5 mm
with increasing substrate voltage up to 400 V).
The adherence of the coatings measured by the scratch
test for both coating types showed no significant differ-
ence. The values were in the range 45 ±5 N for coatings
2.5 ±0.5 ~im thick on HSS samples with a Rockwell C
hardness of 65 HRC.
The surface roughness Ra of the coatings on Ar-ion-
etched surfaces was lower by a factor of 2 than that of
the coatings on Ti-ion-etched surfaces (i.e. 0.2 ±0.1 ~.tm
instead of 0.4 ±0.1 ~.tm).
5. Conclusions
The AEGD process generates an intense plasma which
is very suitable for the etching of substrate surfaces
before coating. The homogeneity of the etching depths
throughout the chamber, as well as the penetration
/ Arc-enhanced glow discharge 155
capability of the etching effect in the case of more
complicated substrate geometries, allows the use of the
AEGD process in industrial PVD machines with vacuum
arc evaporators.
Lower surface roughnesses of TiN coatings can be
achieved by using the AEGD instead of the metal ion
bombardment. The critical loads measured by the
scratch test of coatings after AEGD conditioning of the
substrate surfaces are in the same range as for metal ion
conditioning.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Mr.
Schmidt-Mauer for his careful experimental work and
to T. Wallendorf for the Langmuir probe measurements.
References
I L. P. Sablev, N. P. Atamansky, V. N. Gorbunov, J. J. Dolotov,
V. N. Lutseenko, V. M. Lunev and V. V. Usov, US Patent 3, 793,
179, 1971.
2 E. Moll and E. Bergmann, Surf Coat. Technol., 37(1989) 483.
3 M. Mack, Surface Technology, Verlag Moderne Industrie,
Landsberg/Lech., 1990.
~ J. Vetter and B. Deutscher
Hartstoffschichten, Rother, Plasmabeschichtungsverfahren und
Verlag für Grundstoffindustrie,
Leipzig, 1992.
5 German patent DE 41 25 365 C 1, 1992.
6 Prospect PVD 32, Multi-Arc Oberflächentechnik G.m.b.H.,
Bergisch Gladbach, Germany.
7 T. Wallendorf, TU Karl-Marx-Stadt, graduation work, 1988.
8 R. F. Bunshah, J. M. Blocher, T. D. Bonifield, J. G. Fish, P. B.
Ghate, B. E. Jacobson, D. M. Mattox, G. E. McGuire, M. Schwartz,
J. A. Thornton and R. C. Tucker, Deposition Technologiesfor Films
and Coatings, Noyes, Park Ridge, 1982.
9 B. Chapman, Glow Discharge Processes, Wiley, New York, 1980.
10 J. L. Vossen and W. Kern, Thin Film Processes, Academic Press,
Orlando, FL, 1978.