Thomas Schütte¹, Jan-Peter Urbach¹, Holger Gerdes², Stefan Körner², Peter Neiß¹, Marius Radloff¹, Hokuto Kikuchi¹, Ralf Bandorf^2
1PLASUS GmbH, Mering, Germany
²Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST, Braunschweig, Germany
HIPIMS processes are evaluated and applied more and more for hard coatings, decorative coatings and optical coatings in R&D and production. Understanding and controlling the behavior of particle densities in the pulse is essential to evaluate and optimize the coating process in terms of deposition rate, film composition and morphology. The currently available spectroscopic plasma monitoring solutions based on optical emission spectroscopy (OES) are restricted to only pulse-averaging data acquisition.
A recently developed plasma monitoring technology of continuous pulse-resolved spectroscopic and electrical plasma monitoring overcomes this restriction by providing pulse-resolved information in real-time such as particle densities of neutrals and ions together with the pulse curves of voltage and current. In particular, the pulse resolved particle composition can be tracked, which allows to optimize the ionization degree and the metal to reactive gas ratio on the fly. This technology helps to evaluate, investigate, and understand the particle dynamics in the HIPIMS pulse at different process parameters. For example, the influence of the electrical parameters provided by the HIPIMS generator on the time behavior of the particle densities in the pulse can be monitored in real-time. This helps to analyze and understand different pulse shapes of voltage and current or different pulse modes and patterns.
This presentation showcases the continuous, pulse-resolved spectroscopic and electrical data acquisition at R&D and production in HIPIMS applications with different target materials, HIPIMS generators and in metallic and reactive mode. In particular, it is demonstrated that pulse resolved particle composition can be tracked, which allows to optimize the ionization degree and the metal to reactive gas ratio on the fly.
This new technology provides new opportunities for R&D to tailor HIPIMS coatings with advanced or new properties and will enhance process stability and production quality in industrial applications.