Diamond like carbon coating of substrate housings

• US 8,603,632 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2013
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Entegris Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Entegris Incorporated
• Inventors: Extrand, Charles W., Moon, Sung In
• Primary Examiner(s): LAM, CATHY FONG FONG
• Application Number:
  US13/847,879
• Publication Number:
  US 20130280457A1
• Time in Patent Office: 265 Days
• Field of Search: 428/408, 428/412, 257/642, 206/139
• US Class Current: 428/408
• CPC Class Codes: C09D 1/00 Coating compositions, e.g. paints, varnishes or lacquers, based on inorganic substances
• CPC Class Codes: C23C 16/26 Deposition of carbon only
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 5/069 Other details of the casing, e.g. wall structure, passage for a connector, a cable, a shaft
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/1379 Contains vapor or gas barrier, polymer derived from vinyl chloride or vinylidene chloride, or polymer containing a vinyl alcohol unit
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/30 Self-sustaining carbon mass or layer with impregnant or other layer
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/31507 Of polycarbonate

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention include articles comprising a diamond like carbon coating or doped diamond like carbon coating on one or more surfaces of a plastic substrate or a plastic enclosure. Embodiments of the DLC or doped DLC coatings reduce the gas permeation of the coated plastic or thermoplastic to hydrogen or helium compared to the permeability of the plastic alone. The DLC or doped DLC coatings coating provides a surface resistivity of from about 10⁷ to about 10¹⁴ ohm/square and have a transmittance that range from about 0% to about 70% less than the transmittance of the underlying plastic substrate in the range of about 300 nm to about 1100 nm. The DLC coated plastic can be used in environmental enclosures for protecting environmentally sensitive substrates such as semiconductor wafers and reticles.

Claims

1. An article comprising:

a thermoplastic and an adherent diamond like carbon coating on one or more surfaces of said thermoplastic, the adherent diamond like carbon coating being a doped diamond like carbon that further comprises 8.1 atomic percent or more of oxygen and 9.7 atomic percent or less of nitrogen, said adherent diamond like carbon coating has a permeability coefficient for helium gas that is at least 10 times less than the permeability coefficient for helium of said thermoplastic, the diamond like carbon coating has a surface resistivity of from about 10⁷ to about 10¹⁴ ohm/square and said adherent diamond like carbon coating has a transmittance that is 0% to 70% less than the transmittance of said thermoplastic to light in the range of 300 nm to 1100 nm.

2. The article of claim 1 where the article is an enclosure for environmentally sensitive substrates that comprises at least a portion of a carrier from the group consisting of:

a carrier for wafers;

a carrier for flat panel displays; and

a carrier for lithographic reticles.

3. The article of claim 1 where the surface resistivity of the adherent diamond like carbon coating provides a surface resistivity in the range of 10⁸ ohm per square to 10¹² ohm per square.

4. The article of claim 1 where the surface resistivity of the adherent diamond like carbon coating provides a surface resistivity in the range of 10⁹ ohm per square to 10¹² ohm per square.

5. The article of claim 1 where the adherent diamond like carbon coating has a variation of surface resistivity that is less than 10² ohm per square.

6. The article of claim 1 where the adherent diamond like carbon coating has a variation of surface resistivity that is less than 10¹ ohm per square.

7. The article of claim 1 where the adherent diamond like carbon coating has an XPS spectra that has a carbon peak, an oxygen peak, and a nitrogen peak.

8. The article of claim 7 where the XPS spectrum of said adherent diamond like carbon coating includes a carbon peak at about 284 eV, an oxygen peak at about 532 eV, and a nitrogen peak at about 399 eV.

9. The article of claim 1 where the adherent diamond like carbon coating is further treated by a plasma, a reactive gas containing plasma, or corona discharge, an oxygen containing plasma, to form a hydrophilic adherent diamond like carbon coating.

10. The article of claim 1 where the article is a substrate carrier.