TETRAHEDRAL AMORPHOUS CARBON (Ta-C) ULTRA THIN FILMS FOR SLIDER OVERCOAT APPLICATION

Abstract

Tetrahedral Amorphous Carbon (ta-C) thin film by using Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc (FCVA) technique has proven to be wear-resistive and corrosion resistant for a wide range of electrical, optical, and mechanical applications. Many investigations have shown that the ta-C film prepared by the FCVA technique can provide a superior ultra thin overcoat for the sliders and media compared to ECR-CVD and IBD coating technology. The ta-C film excels in terms of the film density, hardness, surface roughness and corrosion resistance. Nanofilm Technology International (NTI) has successfully developed and commercialized the FCVA coating system (FS series) for the slider overcoat application, which provides a good quality film with a high hardness (~50 GPa), low stress (2~3 GPa), low macro-particle density (~1/cm2 for particles > 0.3 μm), good uniformity (< 4%$ in 8 inch coating area) and high production repeatability (< 5%).