Ion plating

The ion plating ( English ion plating ) is a vacuum-based and plasma-assisted coating technique that the process of physical vapor deposition (engl. Physical vapor deposition belongs, PVD).

Ion plating basics

In metalworking, " plating " means the application of a higher-quality metal layer to another metal. With ion plating , this is not done by casting or welding , but using a plasma-assisted method. First, the substrate surface is cleaned from the plasma by ion bombardment (a so-called " soft etch " by sputtering ). Metal vapor is then supplied from an evaporator source. This partially ionizes in the plasma and is accelerated by a bias voltage (0.3 to 5  kV ) on the mostly preheated substrate on its surface and forms a layer of the vaporized material on the substrate. Due to the constant bombardment with metal ions, part of the substrate or the layer is repeatedly removed (sputtered). The dissolved atoms condense again on the substrate and contribute to the formation of the layer. The constant ion bombardment modifies the layer properties, so it usually improves the adhesion of the layer. The resulting layer structure depends heavily on the temperature of the substrate.

Typical working pressures for ion plating are 5  Pa .

variants

In addition to normal ion plating, there is also a reactive variant, reactive ion plating (RIP). In addition, a reactive gas is introduced into the plasma, which also ionizes, reacts with the atomized metal and forms a layer from the resulting compound. In this way z. B. Titanium nitride layers made of titanium vapor and nitrogen injected.