Response surface methodology modelling of diamond-like carbon film deposition Original Research Article

The film properties of diamond-like carbon films produced by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition depend strongly on the process parameters. Response Surface Methodology (RSM), a statistical approach to empirical modelling of experimental data, has been used to create a model for the influence of process pressure, deposition temperature, gas composition, and plasma power on the thickness, wear resistance, optical band gap, and IR absorption properties of the deposited films. The RSM technique is explained in brief, and the models resulting from the experiments are presented. They show that low deposition pressure and high plasma power are important for achieving wear resistant films, and that low deposition temperature and a mixture of 70% CH4/30% Ar serve to maximise both optical band gap and deposition rate without adversely affecting the wear resistance.