Method for producing fluorinated diamond-like carbon films

• US 6,572,937 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2000
• Issued: 06/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Los Alamos National Security LLC (Government of the United States of America)
• Original Assignee: Regents of the University of California (University of California)
• Inventors: He, Xiao-Ming, Lee, Deok-Hyung, Hakovirta, Marko J., Nastasi, Michael A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Meeks, Timothy
• Assistant Examiner(s): FLETCHER III, WILLIAM P
• Application Number:
  US09/728,791
• Publication Number:
  US 20020098285A1
• Time in Patent Office: 915 Days
• Field of Search: 427/577, 427/902-906, 427/569, 427/248.1, 427/249.7, 427/255.39, 438/127
• US Class Current: 427/577
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/26 Deposition of carbon only
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/30 Deposition of compounds, mixtures or solid solutions, e.g. borides, carbides, nitrides
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/515 using pulsed discharges
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 427/106 Utilizing plasma, e.g. corona, glow discharge, cold plasma

Abstract

Fluorinated, diamond-like carbon (F-DLC) films are produced by a pulsed, glow-discharge plasma immersion ion processing procedure. The pulsed, glow-discharge plasma was generated at a pressure of 1 Pa from an acetylene (C₂H₂) and hexafluoroethane (C₂F₆) gas mixture, and the fluorinated, diamond-like carbon films were deposited on silicon <100>substrates. The film hardness and wear resistance were found to be strongly dependent on the fluorine content incorporated into the coatings. The hardness of the F-DLC films was found to decrease considerably when the fluorine content in the coatings reached about 20%. The contact angle of water on the F-DLC coatings was found to increase with increasing film fluorine content and to saturate at a level characteristic of polytetrafluoroethylene.

Claims

1. A method for producing a fluorinated, diamond-like carbon coating on a substrate which comprises the steps of:

(a) applying a negative-pulsed bias to said substrate; and

(b) immersing the biased substrate in a plasma containing ions simultaneously bearing carbon and hydrogen and carbon and fluorine, whereby the ions are projected onto the surface of said substrate and form a fluorinated, diamond-like coating on the surface thereof, wherein the plasma is formed in a gas mixture of acetylene and hexafluoroethane having a ratio of about 1;

1.

2. The method for producing a fluorinated, diamond-like carbon coating on a substrate as described in claim 1, wherein said substrate includes silicon.