Structures and properties of BON and multilayered TiN/BON thin films prepared by PAMOCVD method

Hard multilayered TiN/BON thin films have been deposited on steel and copper substrates in the deposition temperature range of RT∼300 °C by low frequency RF derived plasma assisted MOCVD. Trimethylborate and tetrakisdimethylaminotitanium precursors were used to grow multilayered TiN/BON thin films. We used Ar gas for a plasma source and N2 gas as a reactive and additional nitrogen source. In this study, we have mainly investigated the relationship between hardness and structures of the coating layers by the effects of deposition parameters such as deposition time and substrate temperature. We found that the microhardness strongly depended on film thickness and structures of the bilayer films. In addition, the sequence of deposition procedure for the TiN/BON bilayers highly affected the hardness. The maximum hardness obtained from TiN/BON bilayer was 30 GPa.