Silicon carbonitride layers deposited on titanium and polyurethane by PACVD method

This work reports the results concerning formation and tribological properties of SiC x N y (H) layers deposited on Ti Grade 2 and polyurethane foil. Depending on the substrate, two variants of PACVD were used. The SiC x N y (H) layers on titanium were deposited with application of MWCVD (2.45 GHz, 2 kW). The layers on polyurethane were deposited using RFCVD (13.56 MHz, 400 W). Good adhesion between the SiC x N y (H) layers and polymeric foil was achieved by formation of a transitional C:N:H layer and incorporating Si gradient into the structure of the SiC x N y (H) layer. The chemical composition of the layers was tailored by precise control of the gaseous precursors ratios: [SiH4]/[NH3], [SIH4]/[NH3]/[CH4], [SiH4]/[CH4] or [SiH4]/[N2]/[CH4]. The structure and chemical composition of the obtained layers were subjected to further studies (FTIR, SEM/EDS). The roughness, friction coefficient and wear resistance were also measured. The results show that SiC x N y (H) layers offer attractive tribological properties which make them good candidates for various applications, including biomedical devices.