COATING OF SUBSTRATES USING HIPIMS

摘要

A process and a device for coating a substrate (22) are described. In a vacuum chamber (10), a first magnetron cathode (24) is provided with a sputtering target (28) of a first metal composition comprising predominantly aluminium. A second magnetron cathode (26) is provided with a sputtering target (30) of a second metal composition comprising at least 50 at-% of a second metal selected from groups IVA-VIA of the periodic table. In order to obtain coatings with improved properties, electrical power is supplied to the cathodes (24, 26) such that the targets (28, 30) are sputtered, where electrical power is supplied to the first cathode (24) as pulsed electrical power according to high power impulse magnetron sputtering with a first peak current density, and to the second cathode (26) with a second peak current density lower than the first peak current density. The substrate (22) is arranged within the vacuum chamber such that particles from the plasma deposit onto the substrate forming a coating.