A novel high-power pulse PECVD method

A novel plasma enhanced CVD (PECVD) technique has been developed in order to combine energetic particle bombardment and high plasma densities found in ionized PVD with the advantages from PECVD such as a high deposition rate and the capability to coat complex and porous surfaces. In this PECVD method, an ionized plasma is generated above the substrate by means of a hollow cathode discharge. The hollow cathode is known to generate a highly ionized plasma and the discharge can be sustained in direct current (DC) mode, or in high-power pulsed (HiPP) mode using short pulses of a few tens of microsecond. The latter option is similar to the power scheme used in high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS), which is known to generate a high degree of ionization of the sputtered material, and thus providing new and added means for the synthesis of tailor-made thin films. In this work amorphous carbon coatings containing copper, have been deposited using both HiPP and DC operating conditions. Investigations of the bulk plasma using optical emission spectroscopy verify the presence of Ar+, C+ as well as Cu+ when running in pulsed mode. Deposition rates in the range 30 μm/h have been obtained and the amorphous, copper containing carbon films have a low hydrogen content of 4–5 at%. Furthermore, the results presented here suggest that a more efficient PECVD process is obtained by using a superposition of HiPP and DC mode, compared to using only DC mode at the same average input power.