The role of the positive voltage reversal in HIPIMS on plasma discharges and coating properties

The application of a short positive voltage reversal right after the negative HIPIMS pulse is studied in this paper. The most obvious direct advantage of this technology is that the magnetron surface will be immediately discharged which reduces the tendency to arcing. Yet, other positive effects are evident, such as:

• Enhanced high energetic ion bombardment to the substrate due to the acceleration of the positively charged metal ions towards the substrate, which would in general allow the deposition of harder coatings, and enables advanced depositioning for the upcoming requirements onto insulating substrates such as glass, plastics or textile fibers.
• Increase of the deposition rate, due to this acceleration of the metal ions towards the substrate

Measurements of the deposition rate, coating hardness and crystallinity were performed for different metallic coatings (Ti, Al) as well as nitrides (TiN) and oxides (TiO2) deposited in reactive mode.