The Optimized Wire Treatment (OWIT) project is focused on formulating and validating a new deposition method, enabling uniform coatings with excellent physical properties to be attained on fibers and wires. Conventional sputtering technique, which uses point sources or planar targets, has serious restrictions related to the unfeasibility to deliver a large amount of sputtered species to the substrate.
Hiden recommends a magnetron sputter system operating in High Power Impulse (HIPIMS) mode, which preserves a considerable amount of metal ions. These ions are not lost at the chamber walls, but can be repeatedly utilized for the deposition process, maintaining high level of self-sputtering even at comparatively low power inputs. New coatings with unique chemical, physical and electrical properties can be acquired with high aging quality, very good mechanical strength, long mechanical and chemical lifetime.
Validation and Evaluation of Method and Deposition Technique
The following key objectives are considered to validate and evaluate the method and deposition technique,:
- Plasma modeling with particle-in-cell (PIC) and Monte Carlo techniques using experimental data gained by means of plasma diagnostic tools. Extensive plasma modeling and calculations are carried out so as to establish the optimum properties (density, geometry, field distribution, etc.) of the bulk plasma.
- New technological level was reached in the field of smart processing of wires. The originality and the key difficulty of this project involve concentrating high-density plasma in a small cylindrical volume having moderately large length. Hiden aims at developing an appropriate plasma shield around wires so as to deposit and implant the constitutive species of coatings at the same time. This new plasma configuration indicates high deposition rates and hence high treatment speeds. In the future, special focus will be on accomplishing perfect cylindrical plasma geometry so as to ensure homogeneous treatment throughout the wire surface.
- Plasma diagnostics by means of Hiden Analytical ESPion Advanced Langmuir Probe have been performed. The discharge has been examined for different power modes during the active phase of HIPIMS plasma generation when the probe was positioned in the middle of the discharge volume between four essentially balanced magnetrons. When the cycle is composed of more than one pulse, the triggering waveform was converted into a single pulse using a counting device. Triggering was started 5 µs prior to the first edge level of the discharge voltage had been accomplished at the beginning of each cycle. In this type of a configuration, the probe can provide 125 ns resolution for the main plasma parameters such as electron temperature, electron and ion densities, plasma and floating potentials.
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The experimental system with Langmuir probe, four essentially balanced planar magnetrons (2” Ti targets), and the system of capillaries used to introduce wires from atmospheric pressure
Project Summary by:
O.V. Vozniy
Département Science et Analyse des Matériaux (SAM),
Centre de Recherche Public - Gabriel Lippmann,
41, rue du Brill,
L-4422 Belvaux
Luxembourg
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Paper Reference:
O. Z. Vozniy, D. Duday, A. Lejars, T. Wirtz (2011) “Ion density increase in high power twin-cathode magnetron system” Vacuum 86 (1), 78-81
Hiden Product:
ESPion Advanced Langmuir Probe
Follow the link to the product catalogue on Hiden Analytical's website for further information
http://www.hidenanalytical.com/products/for-thin-films-plasma-and-surface-engineering/espion/
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Hiden Analytical.
For more information on this source, please visit Hiden Analytical.