Patent ID: 8097129
Filing Date: 2012-01-17
Classification: C23C,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A method for producing a coating on a substrate comprising: (a) placing a substrate to be coated in a chamber containing a metal-target and a nitrogen-containing gas mixture; (b) evaporating the metal from the metal target to produce a metal vapor to react with the nitrogen in the nitrogen-containing gas mixture to form a stoichiometric nitride-containing layer on the substrate; (c) changing the nitrogen content of the nitrogen-containing gas mixture and repeating step (b) to form a nonstoichiometric nitride-containing layer on the stoichiometric nitride-containing layer of step (b); (d) changing the nitrogen content of the nitrogen-containing gas mixture and repeating step (b) to form a stoichiometric nitride-containing layer on the nonstoichiometric nitride-containing layer of step (c); (e) changing the nitrogen content of the nitrogen-containing gas mixture and repeating step (c) to form a nonstoichiometric nitride-containing layer on the stoichiometric nitride-containing layer of step (d); (f) optionally repeating steps (b) and (c) to form additional alternating stoichiometric nitride-containing layers and nonstoichiometric nitride-containing layers thereby forming a first sublayer system having a thickness of greater than about 0.4 microns; (g) evaporating the metal from the metal target to produce a metal vapor to form a metal-containing interlayer on the nonstoichiometric nitride-containing layer of step (e) or (f) and wherein the metal is selected from the group consisting of titanium, zirconium or titanium aluminum and wherein the thickness of said layers of a nitride-containing compound of nonstoichiometric composition are greater than the thickness of said layer of a nitride-containing compound of stoichiometric composition, and the thickness of said interlayer is greater than the thickness of said layer of a nitride-containing compound of stoichiometric composition; and (h) repeating steps (b)-(f) to form at least one additional sublayer system having a thickness of greater than about 0.4 microns.