Synthetic Diamond: New Name in Coating Technology!

With the recent advancements in technology, machines have become an essential part of our daily lives. Most of these are electronic thin film materials and devices, crafted from large facilities of semiconductors. Even if you are to build a small computer chip, you need a large semiconductor fabrication facility, which involves both capital investment and expert man power.

Read Also:- Top Reasons To Get Your Iron / Steel Tools Diamond Coated!

Alternatively, there are suppliers that reduce this burden and manufacture the essential machines for various purposes. With the rapid expansion of electronics industry, the seeds for the alternatives and machine revolution were planted. This is largely visible as the semiconductor chips have continued to shrink in size, with the discovery of newer semiconductor materials.

Now a days, carbon based diamonds are synthetically produced through machines, and have a wide variety of applications replacing the expensive diamonds. These can either directly be purchased from the manufacturer or can be produced using owned machines. There are two methods to produce carbon like diamonds:

1. HPHT Diamond: This type of diamond is produced using the high pressure, high temperature technique. The minute diamond seeds grow up due to bonding with the molten carbon, produced after subjecting to high temperature and high pressure. As it solidifies, synthetic diamond is obtained.

2. CVD Diamond: This type of diamond is produced using the high carbon vapor deposition technique. The diamond is developed from a hydrocarbon gas mixture that is fed into the chamber and energized. The diamond powder acts as substrate to promote the growth of synthetic diamond.

Although, both these techniques produce diamonds of high quality, HPHT techniques are suitable for large scale applications while CVD techniques are suitable for laboratory applications. These synthetic diamonds, produced from isotropic forms of pure carbon find uses in a variety of applications. The use of carbon like diamonds greatly impacts your project cost.

The applications include:

• Shaping, cutting and polishing of tools.

• Electronic devices such as transistors and light emitting diode.

• Heat sinks that cool down mechanical devices.

• Detection of UV light or high energy particles.

• Transmitting infrared and microwave radiation.

• Semiconductor devices after being doped with Boron and Phosphorous.

• Replacing gemstones 

Carbon, with an excellent property of catenation (cross linking) is an amazing material and enables the manufacturers to do amazing stuffs. Recently, carbon has been utilized to produce diamond like carbon coating which is a nano-composite coating, replicating the properties of original diamond such as: 

• Low friction, 

• High hardness, 

• Electrical insulation, 

• Thermal conductivity, 

• Self lubrication, 

• High optical transparency and 

• High corrosion resistance. 

The properties vary depending upon the orbital configuration of carbon and quantity of other fillers like hydrogen, silicon, and metal in the coating layer. Thus, the allotrope of carbon like diamond has become an essential manufacturing component of thin film deposition systems.

The instruments such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD) systems, electron beam evaporators, thermal evaporators, reactive sputtering tool, hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) systems, and thermal chemical vapor deposition (TCVD) systems are efficient for the production of thin film coatings of carbon like diamond. 

In an attempt to put carbon to good use, the synthetic carbon and its diversified uses in coatings are appreciable domains. If you are looking forward to carbon based coatings for nanometer thickness, these devices are ready for your use!

Vacuum Deposition Method- A Simple And Popular Of Physical Vapor Deposition!

Physical vapor deposition (PVD), is a method to laminate an object with a thin film. The process includes vaporizing the material and then placing it into a low-pressure environment, thereby the distillation of the vapors get placed and set upon the object and automatically laminates it with a thin film of the substance.

The two main advantages of using physical vapor deposition are:

1. The coating we get is smooth and constant, and is placed over an entire object without any such issues like a certain area has got a thick coating while some areas got a very thin layer. 

2. The technique is simple and dirt-free that does not need a high maintenance.

One of the convenient ways of physical vapor deposition is by using an active gases like, nitrogen, methane, oxygen, and with plasma bombarding. However, different methods are required to use the plasma and creating the gases, the main methods make use of ions manipulation, alloying with the use of lasers, spluttering and plate-making.

And the best way to get the PVD accomplished is by using a vacuum method. Where, the vapors are physically channeled via a vacuum environment from the central source of evaporation or sputtering. This process is carried out routinely and automatically as the vapors are focused into the right channel to finally condense on the object that is required to be coated with the fine film.

A number of techniques have been developed to get PVD done, across the world. The techniques are acknowledged and identified on the basis of the source of the gas being used for evaporation or sputtering. Different companies have different preferences of using sputtering methods, some companies prefer cylindrical-magnetron method for sputtering, while others may consider the diode method. Furthermore, the other methods of sputtering can be electron beam method, triode-based, and planar method, etc. All of these techniques can be grouped and classified into three major categories according to the source of emission, condensation method, and vacuum transmission.

The cost of the PVD process is based upon the machines and equipment used to transmit the vapors through the vacuum environment and upon the rate of deposition. However the advanced techniques have decreased the cost of the PVD processes to a significant level, making the use of PVD popular and demanded across the world as,today, we can see how PVD is in a high demand for film-coating. 

The most common  machine that is used in PVD is substrate heater, this heater and its temperature controller are especially designed and built in order to prepare thin films in a high vacuum deposition system. The design of the substrate heater was based on the idea that simplicity produces tough and strong designs.