Abstract
CrWN coatings were fabricated through a hybrid high-power impulse magnetron sputtering/radio-frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The phase structures, mechanical properties, and tribological characteristics of CrWN coatings prepared with various nitrogen flow ratios (fN2s) were investigated. The results indicated that the CrWN coatings prepared at fN2 levels of 0.1 and 0.2 exhibited a Cr2N phase, whereas the coatings prepared at fN2 levels of 0.3 and 0.4 exhibited a CrN phase. These CrWN coatings exhibited hardness values of 16.7–20.2 GPa and Young’s modulus levels of 268–296 GPa, which indicated higher mechanical properties than those of coatings with similar residual stresses prepared through conventional direct current magnetron sputtering. Face-centered cubic (fcc) Cr51W2N47 coatings with a residual stress of −0.53 GPa exhibited the highest wear and scratch resistance. Furthermore, the diffusion barrier performance of fcc CrWN films on Cu metallization was explored, and they exhibited excellent barrier characteristics up to 650 °C.
Highlights
Transition metal nitride films such as TiN [1], CrN [2,3], TaN [4,5], and W2N [6,7] have been widely utilized as protective coatings in versatile applications, such as hard coatings, diffusion barriers, and corrosion-resistant and wear-resistant layers
CrWN coatings were successively fabricated through a hybrid High-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS)/radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) process
The mechanical properties, hardness and Young’s modulus, of the CrWN coatings were affected by the crystalline phase and residual stress
Summary
Transition metal nitride films such as TiN [1], CrN [2,3], TaN [4,5], and W2N [6,7] have been widely utilized as protective coatings in versatile applications, such as hard coatings, diffusion barriers, and corrosion-resistant and wear-resistant layers. Barrier materials that have been reported to prohibit the diffusion of Cu into Si include transition metals (Cr, Ti, Nb, Ta, and W) [23], bilayers (Ta/Ti) [24], alloys (TiW) [25,26], binary and ternary nitrides (TiNx, TaNx, WNx, RuWN, and WTiN) [26,27,28,29,30,31,32], thin film metallic glass (Zr–Cu–Ni–Al–N) [33], and high entropy alloys [34]; and the failure temperatures of these barrier layers exhibited distinct variations in the range of 400–850 ◦C. The goal of this study was to investigate the mechanical properties and diffusion barrier performance of CrWN coatings
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