Hard titanium nitride coating deposition inside narrow tubes using pulsed DC PECVD processes

Abstract In the present work, we reviewed and studied the fabrication process of hard erosion resistant TiN protective coatings on the inner surfaces of narrow tubes using a Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) approach. Initially, while evaluating the growth of DLC and TiN by the CW RF PECVD process, we found that the use of a hydrocarbon precursor to obtain DLC provides uniform film thickness along the tube axis, while the use of the TiCl4 precursor for TiN leads to a significant thickness nonuniformity of 80% and large differences between the film properties in the middle of the tube compared to the edges. Following detailed plasma analysis, we demonstrate that the uniformity can be substantially enhanced by applying pulsed-DC PECVD, while uniform (better than 20%) hard TiN films were prepared by low-frequency (5 kHz) pulsed-DC PECVD. The TiN films (about 12 μm thick), systematically studied by SEM, XRD, and nanoindentation, when prepared under optimized conditions, exhibit high hardness and reduced Young's modulus (25 and 225 GPa, respectively) corresponding to the (111) preferred crystallographic orientation, and a very low Cl contamination ( 15 compared to the bare substrate is well suited for the protection of aerospace, manufacturing, and other critical components with a complex shape of inner surfaces.