INVESTIGATION OF PA-CVD OF TIN - RELATIONS BETWEEN PROCESS PARAMETERS, SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS AND LAYER PROPERTIES

The plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition of TiN layers on steel substrates was investigated for various process parameters in this work. Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) was used to identify the species in the electrical discharge during the deposition process. The layer properties of the deposited TiN layers were determined by various methods (scanning electron microscopy, energy- and wavelength-dispersive X-ray analysis). The deposited layers have a constant amount of titanium, while the contents of nitrogen and chlorine show a contrary behaviour for different deposition parameters. The hardness of the layers is related among other things to the chlorine content. The OES investigations show that the Ti+ and N2+ emission is related to the layer growth rate. The formation of TiN in a gas phase reaction degrades the quality of the layers, such as their hardness.