ETCHING AND SPUTTER-ION PLATING USING PULSED DC

Pulsed d.c. etching and biasing was used for the production of PVD har d coatings on decorative parts. For critical parts and precleaning the influence of the pulse frequency on the etching power is shown. The e tching was done using a d.c. discharge in a pure argon atmosphere. The etching power at a specific frequency was limited by the number of in terrupted arcings that occurred causing at each interruption a specifi c blanking out of power. Starting at a pulse frequency of 10 kHz more than 90% of the achievable maximum etching power was obtained even on critical parts which had not been perfectly precleaned, After etching, a sputter ion plating process for the deposition of ZrNx hard coating s was arranged by reactive magnetron sputtering. The coating processes were carried out using d.c. and pulsed d.c. bias. Starting from d.c. the influence of the pulse voltage on the structure and colour of the coatings is shown. As a result of the pulsed d.c. etching and biasing, coatings with dense microstructure and decorative brass-coloured ZrNx with high brilliance were produced at the reduced substrate temperatu re of 150 degrees C.