Study Of The IBED Processes, Structure, And Properties Of Ti/TiN Multi-layered Films

With the development of modern manufacturing industry, the requirements of the coatings properties on cutting tools, moulds and dies become higher. The traditional single layer films, such as TiN, TiC, etc, cannot be applied in harsh service conditions, and multi-layered films can obviously improve the properties of the films.In this work, TiN films were prepared by ion beam enhanced medium frequency sputtering (IBED); the influence of different deposition parameters on the deposition rate, surface morphology, hardness and adhesion of TiN films was studied through orthogonal experimentation and range analysis, and the optimum process of TiN by IBED was determined. The differences between continuous gas supply and pulsed gas supply were studied, and their influences on the deposition rates and the properties of Ti/TiN multi-layered films were investigated. The properties of Ti/TiN multi-layered films with different modulation periods or different modulation ratios were studied. The results are as following:The target poisoning during deposition can be effectively restrained by increasing the target power and decreasing the supply rate of nitrogen. The hardness of the TiN films increased gradually with the increase of the targer power and the supply rate of nitrogen, and it decreased with the increase of ion flux. The adhesion between TiN films and substrates decreased with lower target power and the higher supply rate of nitrogen. The surface morphology, hardness and adhesion of TiN films were optimized as the target power 9KW, supply rate of nitrogen 50sccm, ion flux 4A and temperature 150℃, and the TiN films optimum hardness was HV2677, and the adhesion between TiN films and substrates was 7.5N.The Ti/TiN multi-layered films with better surface morphology were obtained. A higher supply rate of nitrogen is needed in order to obtain higher hardness of films. The hardness and adhesion of Ti/TiN films to substrates were HV1767 and 18N respectively, when the supply rate of nitrogen was 90sccm by pulsed gas supply.The hardness and adhesion of Ti/TiN multi-layered films decreased gradually with the increase of the modulation periods, but it increased with the increase of themodulation ratios (the deposition time ratio of TiN to Ti during a modulation period). The hardness of Ti/TiN multi-layered films was HV1813 as the modulation period was 9.45nm and the modulation ratio was 5︰1 , and the adhesion between Ti/TiN multi-layered films and substrates was above two times of that of TiN films.