MICROWAVE PACVD OF LOW FRICTION a-SIC COATINGS FROM PLASMA CHARACTERIZATION TO MATERIAL MECHANICAL PROPERTY

摘要

Hard amorphous hydrogenated SiC thin films were deposited on steel substrate for tribological applications. We used a microwave plasma activated CVD reactor (microwave-PACVD). The gas-mixture was composed of Argon and TMS (TMS = Si(CH_3)_4). A two-level design of experiments was built. The influence of following parameters was studied: ⅰ) distance between substrate and TMS injection (Z), ⅱ) substrate temperature (T), ⅲ) TMS content in argon. Large variations of the film properties and composition were observed according to these parameters: 0.45 < Si/C < 1; 18 < H %at. < 30; 8 < Hardness (H) < 23 (GPa); 60 < elastic modulus (E) < 185 (GPa); 0.08 < friction coefficient (μ) < 0.4. A maximum deposition rate of 17 μm/h was measured.