Adhesion of reactive magnetron sputtered TINx and TICy coatings to AISI H13 tool steel

Reactive Magnetron Sputtered TiN and TiC films were deposited on AISI H13 tool steel and silicon (111) substrates, under nitrogen and argon or methane and argon reactive plasma. Depth sensing techniques were used to assess the mechanical properties of the films, namely hardness and Young modulus using a load of 7.0 mN. TiN and TiC were deposited using a magnetron sputtering technique, the amount of nitrogen in the sputtering gas being changed from 3 to 38 vol.% and the amount of methane from 2 vol.% to 27 vol.%. The H/E ratio (Hardness/Young Modulus) of TiN films increases continuously when the amount of nitrogen in the sputtering gas is increased from 3 to 38 vol.%. For TiC films the ratio H/E reached a maximum for a methane content of 12 vol.% in the sputter gas. The film to substrate adhesion was measured using Rockwell C tests. The adhesion of the film to the substrate was greater when the H/E ratio of the film and of the substrate were similar.