The effect of pulse sequence modulation and pulse energy on structural coating properties and coating composition

The ever-increasing tool and machine part performance require novel coatings and have led to the demand for complex, fine-grained structures and a graded composition of PVD coatings in order to fulfill the high demands. Pulsed power supplies offer an excellent opportunity to deposit non-conductive, high-quality coatings with outstanding deposition rates. Many papers report a positive effect of higher ionization and increased plasma density. In this paper, bipolar power supplies with a duplex, dual-cathode arrangement were used to vary coating composition and generate a graded layer in industrial coating equipment. For this purpose, the pulse energy was altered during deposition. The coating process was analyzed by both plasma diagnostics as well as common thin-film analytical techniques.