We are delighted to announce that this year's Jeremy Laskowski prize for excellence in PhD research has been awarded to Osama el Sherif

Sheffield Hallam University is pleased to announce that, in partnership with TWI (formerly The Welding Institute) and Ionbond UK Ltd, it has won a collaborative research project supported by Innovative UK to developer coatings for friction stir welding (FSW) tools.

Understanding the fundamentals of HIPIMS plasma

As part of an ongoing programme of fundamental studies, the plasma produced during the coating cycle is being studied in an attempt to link plasma properties to physical film properties

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) has been developed on rotating PVD magnetron sources for uniform deposition on 200mm single wafer tools for barrier and seed layer deposition in through silicon vias (TSV)

To meet continuous demands for improved performance of the state of art hard coatings for tribological applications it is necessary to incorporate novel plasma assisted deposition technology into the present coating equipment providing better control over the energy of film forming species

This 'Innovatial' project focuses on the development of protective coatings for a new generation of lightweight titanium gamma aluminide materials that are in high demand in modern aircraft and cars

MERI is renowned for the development of nanoscale multilayer Physical Vapour Deposited (PVD) coatings and for the development of the HIPIMS technique

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering is the latest development in PVD coating deposition technology

Dr Arunprahbu Arunchalam Sugurmaran is a researcher with the National HIPIMS Technology centre. He is part of a strong research group at Materials and Engineering Research Institute (MERI).