TiN films were deposited onto the stellite 6B alloy (Co base) by the reactive magnetron sputter ion plating using the hot cathode triode system introduced to improve the ionization efficiency.
As preliminary experiment, the Ⅰ-Ⅴ characteristics of hot cathode triode system was investigated. In this experiments, anode current and substrate current were increased as the function of anode voltage and filament current.
The characteristics of deposited TiN film were investigated by various analysis methods. The SEM analysis showed that the morphologies of TiN film were changed from open columnar structure to dense structure with smooth surface. the deposition rate was decreased with increasing substrate bias due to densification and resputtering by the ion bombardment.
The major impurity in TiN films was oxygen and the amounts of impurities were decreased greatly when the substrate bias was applied. The mass spectrometer analysis indicated that oxygen was generated from the decomposition of water vapor.
The preferred orientation of TiN films were changed from (200) to (111) with decreasing $N_2$/Ar ratio and (200) to (111) and then (220) with increasing substrate bias. The values of micro vickers hardness of TiN films were 2000~3500kgf/㎟ when substrate bias was applied and the hardness was increased with increasing the compressive stress in the films.