TITANIUM NITRIDE FILM AS A PROTECTIVE COATING FOR A VACUUM DEPOSITION CHAMBER

A hard and anti-corrosive titanium nitride coating is proposed for use as a permanent coating layer on the inside walls of vacuum chambers and tooling that are exposed to repeated depositions of soft metals. Excellent characteristics for the removal of deposited aluminum or copper by either chemical cleaning or glass bead blasting are demonstrated. The completion of removal can easily be monitored by the obvious gold color of the coating layer. The outgassing rate at room temperature is considerably lower than that of bare stainless steel plate. Characterization of the titanium nitride layer is made by X-ray diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy, electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis, and secondary ion mass spectrometry. © 1979.