Industrialisation study of nanocomposite ncTiC/a-C coatings for electrical contact applications

Abstract

Nanocomposite nc-TiC/a-C coatings were prepared by non-reactive magnetron sputtering in industrial scale equipment, under varying deposition conditions in order to investigate upscaling and possible industrialisation. The coatings were found to have similar microstructure and performance compared to previous laboratory scale experiments. The samples were characterised with XRD, XPS and SEM as well with ball-on-disc, nanoindentation and electrical measurements. Coatings containing a small fraction of a-C matrix phase were found to have promising both electrical properties (p< 400 μΩcm and contact resistances down to 0.34 mΩ at 40 N) and tribological properties (f< 0.3 for 10 000 laps) © 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.