European CRAFT project

This project was concerned with the development of a novel plasma technology for the droplet-free pretreatment of substrates by metal ion bombardment.

The technology is High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering, it pushes sputtering to power levels which are two orders of magnitude greater than conventional processes. The result is extremely dense plasma generated near the target which ionises the metal deposition flux to 30% whilst producing doubly charged metal ions.

Because the technology is based on sputtering, the generation of droplets is essentially eliminated. The defect-free pretreatment by HIPIMS has strong advantages for the integrity of the coating microstructure. Consequently, the coatings deposited after HIPIMS pretreatment have improved wear resistance and superior corrosion protection even of mild steel.

The important results of this project: upscaling and implementation of High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering technology for the deposition of hard coatings; development of first commercial-grade HIPIMS power supply on the market (2001); implementation in automated coating deposition process including cathode and substrate bias design; deposition of first superhard nanoscale multilayer coatings utilising HIPIMS in industrial conditions; the process has been licensed.

Project leaders: Professor P Eh Hovsepian, Dr A P Ehiasarian