THE EFFECT OF PRESSURE, BIAS VOLTAGE AND ANNEALING TEMPERATURE ON N₂ AND N₂+SiH₄ DOPED WC/C DC MAGNETRON SPUTTERED LAYERS

Tungsten carbide (WC/C) layers are often researched due to their outstanding mechanical and tribological properties. Here, optimized indented hardness (H IT ), indentation modulus (E IT ) and coefficient of friction (COF) values were measured to study the effect of pressure and bias voltage on WC/C layers, deposited on Si by DC magnetron spluttering. Maximal values of H IT = 37.2 4.8 GPa, E IT = 447 28 GPa and COF = 0.64 0.09 were obtained. Additionally, the effect of temperature on optimized layers deposited with and without N 2 and N 2 + SiH 4 annealed at 200C, 500C and 800C, were also investigated. The values of H IT , E IT and COF and, observed morphology and structural composition of these contaminated and noncontaminated WC/C layers were evaluated. It was found that layer degradation occurred at different rates depending on the temperature and gas mixture used during the annealing and deposition process, respectively.