Modelling of dcMS and HiPIMS process with hydrocarbon gas admixture

Abstract

Abstract Magnetron sputtering in an argon and hydrocarbon gas mixture is a complex deposition process exhibiting features of both physical vapour deposition and plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition. The hydrocarbon gas decomposes within the plasma and then it is able to form a carbide phase with the target metal atoms or to be deposited as amorphous carbon. In this paper, a simple model for both the direct current (dcMS) and the high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) processes with hydrocarbon gas admixture is presented. The sputtered target racetrack is divided into metallic, compound, and carbon fractions to take into account both the carbide formation and the carbon deposition. To simulate the HiPIMS process, the back-attraction of ionised sputtered metal particles is incorporated into the model. The model is cross-validated with the previously published experiments which were conducted using the same deposition apparatus allowing for the direct comparison of the dcMS and HiPIMS processes. The simulated results correlate with the measured dependencies of the deposition rate, the carbon content in deposited films, and the racetrack fractions on the acetylene supply rate. The presented model is further successfully validated with the evolution of the racetrack composition calculated by SDTrimSP.