Plasma CVD: process capabilities and economic aspects

Abstract

Process shortcomings in both PVD (physical vapour deposition) and CVD (chemical vapour deposition) technologies have led to an increasing interest in plasma CVD coating technology. Over the past 10–15 years, extensive research effort has been made in this area but problems have, to a large extent, prevented the development of the technology into a production process. Recent progress with respect to equipment as well as process know-how has now led to the establishment of plasma CVD as a technique for producing TiN and TiCN coatings on hardmetal and steel on a routine basis at deposition temperatures in the range 480–560°C. This recent progress is reviewed briefly, and an overview of the coating properties is given. The ability of the plasma CVD technology to supplement and complement PVD and conventional CVD technologies is described, and examples from industrial applications demonstrate the possibilities of coating tools with rather complex shapes. The examples show that anti-stick coating properties solve production problems in the industry, none of which could be solved by the existing technologies. Some aspects of the economics of plasma CVD technology are described and tentatively compared with those of PVD.