Development of process equipment for deposition of amorphous carbon films by pulsed plasmas with high plasma density

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Amorphous carbon films have several applications in various industrial areas. In this study, thin amorphous carbon films are deposited by pulsed plasmas with high plasma density such as high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). The hardness of the films deposited by argon HiPIMS is higher than that deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering and the maximum reaches 18GPa. Moreover, thin amorphous carbon films are deposited by HiPIMS containing reactive gases in order to achieve further improvement of the film properties. Thin amorphous carbon nitride films are deposited by argon/nitrogen HiPIMS. The hardness of the films at the nitrogen fraction of 2.5% is about 1.3 times higher than that without nitrogen. Amorphous hydrogenated carbon films are also deposited by reactive argon/methane HiPIMS. This method includes both physical vapor deposition and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Deposition rate abruptly increases with the increase in methane fraction.