Development Consortium Targets Smarter Surface Coating Techniques
Physics, software and thin-film experts pioneer new intelligent approach to sputter coating.
A smarter approach to applying advanced thin-film coatings to high-value engineering products is being developed by Teer Coatings, Cobham Technical Services and The Open University. The collaborative project, which is co-funded by a $900,000 award from Innovate UK−the UK's Innovation Agency−will develop a practical tool for simulating sputter coating, helping to deliver a right-first-time process.
The development project brings together experts on non-equilibrium plasma physics, computer-aided engineering software for modeling and simulating electromagnetic and related physics effects, and the design and use of the physical vapor deposition (PVD) magnetron sputtering tools to apply coatings that are important in a wide range of high-value manufacturing applications. The key aim is to develop a practical software-guided approach to thin-film coating that is both accurate and fast. This tool will provide an intelligent and automated analysis of a proposed deposition process that will help users optimize the performance of a coating tool and the characteristics of a surface coating applied to work pieces. Such an approach will potentially eliminate the need for prototyping and trials, and will be relevant to intelligent and optimized surface coatings, enabling performance advances in a wide range of engineering sectors.