Diagnostics of TiN coatings process in pulsed D.C plasma enhanced chemicalvapor deposition

The pulsed d.c plasma in industrial scale chamber for plasma nitriding and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition was measured with a single-langmu ir probe. The plasma density was increased with the increasing of the pulse voltage in plasma nitriding process, but decreased in an initial stage and than increased sharply when the voltage is beyond 700V in TiN coatings dep osition. Such different behavior of pulse d.c plasma was due to the additio n of TiCL4, which has a great effect on suppression of plasma density. Howe ver, a quality TiN coating was usually obtained at low density, which needs a relatively low voltage below 700V. It has also been shown that the depos ition rate depends strongly on the N-2 flow.