Patent ID: 6025021
Filing Date: 2000-02-15
Classification: C23C

Abstract:
A method for producing a multilayer titanium nitrogen-containing coating on a substrate comprising the steps:(a) placing a substrate to be coated in a chamber containing a titanium based target and a nitrogen-containing gas mixture;(b) evaporating the titanium from the titanium based target to produce a titanium vapor to interact with the nitrogen in the nitrogen-containing gas mixture to form a first zone of at least one titanium layer containing between 0 and 24 atomic percent nitrogen on the substrate;(c) changing the ratio of nitrogen to titanium in step (b) to form a second zone comprising a titanium nitride-containing layer on the first zone of the coated substrate that has a nitrogen content between 38 and 54 percent of nitrogen; and(d) repeating step (c) at least once to form a multilayer coating of at least two layers in which each layer contains 38 to 54 atomic percent of nitrogen and each layer in the second zone contains between 6 and 14 atomic percent of nitrogen different than the amount of nitrogen contained in an adjacent underlayer.