Studies of a reactive sputter ion plating for preparation of TiN films using a facing target sputter and immersed inductive coupled plasma source

A new type of sputter ion plating system with facing target sputter and immersed inductive coupled plasma (ICP) source was developed for hard coating of metals and various compound materials. The precise control of plasma conditions, such as ion bombardment energy and electron properties, was very important for high-quality film formation. The electron density (n(e)) of 10(10)-10(12) cm(-3) was obtained in the discharge region, and the electron temperature (T.) was in the range of 2.5-5.7 eV. The adhesive force of the TiN film prepared by this system on the stainless steel substrate was in the range of 20-50 N in the scratch test. The mechanical characteristics of TiN film such as adhesion and hardness almost completely depend on the ion energy incident onto the substrate, whereas the reactivity has a deep correlation with the density of RF plasma.