Deposition of Uniform Vacuum Arc Coatings by Use of Magnetic Traps for Plasma Electrons

Abstract

Deposition of uniform coatings in the vacuum arc deposition setup has been investigated. A control unit consisted of two electromagnetic coils installed under substrate of 400 mm dia. exposed to the plasma flux at a distance of 325 mm from the plasma duct exit. The unit generated the magnetic field of various configurations to create a system of the magnetic traps for plasma electrons, which effectively influences the motion of the plasma ions. Superposition of different operation modes of the control unit allows obtaining a uniform distribution of the processing ion flux. TiN coatings were deposited onto cutting inserts placed at different locations on the substrate, by use of the uniform distribution, and SEM technique was used to characterize surfaces of the coatings. The SEM images confirmed the deposition of the uniform coatings along the substrate surface with diameter of 320 mm. This method may be suitable for deposition of uniform coatings from the ion flux extracted from the plasma sources with guiding magnetic field, over the large substrates.