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J. Hell, E. Neubauer, C. Eisenmenger-Sittner:
"Construction, setup and characterisation of a sputterdeposition-system for granular material";
Poster: 11th Joint Vacuum Conference (JVC 11), Prag / Tschechische Republik; 24.09.2006 - 28.09.2006.

CONSTRUCTION, SETUP AND CHARACTERISATION OF A SPUTTERDEPOSITION-SYSTEM FOR GRANULAR MATERIAL

J. Hell 1, E. Neubauer 2, C. Eisenmenger-Sittner 1
1 Vienna University of Technology, A-1040 Vienna, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10
2 ARC Seibersdorf research, A-2444 Seibersdorf
Corresponding author: J. Hell, e0026803@student.tuwien.ac.at

In ceramic or metal matrix composites the interface between the matrix and the reinforcement plays an increasing role due to the reduction in the size of the reinforcing particles. A method to promote adhesion or to avoid too severe reactions between the constituents is to use coated reinforcements. For particle diameters of 1-500µm, magnetron sputter deposition seems to be a promising method. The advantage of this process is that particles can be coated with nearly every metallic element, metallic oxide or nitride. Also the particle surface can be modified by reactive plasma processes.

For particle coating a sputter deposition system was constructed which uses three rotating tilted cups filled with a certain amount of granular material. A rotating ground plate is pivoted on an axial ball bearing. A special cup holder system is mounted onto axes, which are fixed to cantilever arms by radial ball bearings. Steel plates inside the cups divert and mix the particles during the sputtering process as the cups revolve separately. The propulsion of the cups is realised by a friction drive using a viton O-Ring seal mounted on a driven disc. The ground plate is revolved by a similar system. The rotational movement is transferred by two independent DC-motors outside the vacuum chamber via two rotational ferrofluidic feedthroughs.

The movement of the particles within the cups and, consequently, the properties of the coatings is mainly influenced by the rotary speed of the cups and the ground plate. But also the amount of particles, the tilting angle and the sputtering parameters exert a significant influence on the coating properties. For a first analysis of the deposition process glassy carbon spheres have been used. They were coated with Cu and the resulting films were analysed with respect to thickness, coating uniformity and microstructure.