Hard coating of the next generation
HIPIMS, High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering, is the latest development in PVD sputtering processes using pulsed magnetrons. The created coatings are especially corrosion and wear resistant. HIPIMS is used in many areas: in the automobile industry, for machine tools, in the semiconductor industry and for decorative coatings. This coating technology is also attractive in other areas compared to usual pulsed DC processes: for example, for the precise layer structure required in the semiconductor industry and in cleaning surfaces.
In HIPIMS processes, generators inject power in the megawatt range into the process, for a fraction of a millisecond. Thus, a highly dense plasma is ignited, ionizing a large proportion of the sputtered atoms. The layers generated by HIPIMS are particularly hard and arise without formation of material droplets.