High-volume PVD coating of precision components of large volumes at low process costs

Me-C:H coatings have been successfully applied in recent years to reduce wear of precision components, mainly for automotive parts. Coating of precision components requires a high volume throughput, high process reliability and lower costs to fullfil the price demands of customers. In general, the W-C:H coating is deposited by reactive sputtering in a batch system, wherein up to 50% of the production costs are determined by the process costs. The main disadvantages of a batch system are the time-consuming and non-productive process steps like pumpings and venting of the vessel, conditioning of the substrate surface prior to coating and cooling of the substrates. Therefore, a cluster-type in-line machine concept was developed with dedicated process chambers that allows deposition of coatings with high throughput at low costs of ownership. The prototype of the machine and first results are presented. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.