Ion plating utilizes gas discharge under vacuum conditions to ionize the gas or evaporated material. Under the bombardment of gas ions or evaporating material ions, the evaporated material or its reactants are deposited onto the workpiece. This includes magnetron sputtering ion plating, reactive ion plating, hollow cathode discharge ion plating (hollow cathode evaporation), and multi-arc ion plating (cathode arc ion plating). Ion plating combines glow discharge and plasma technology with vacuum evaporation, significantly improving the coating's performance and expanding its application. In addition to sharing the advantages of vacuum sputtering, ion plating offers strong film adhesion, excellent diffraction properties, and a wide range of plating materials.
Consequently, it has experienced rapid development both domestically and internationally in recent years. The basic principle of ion plating is to ionize metal or alloy vapor using glow or arc discharge from an inert gas. Ion plating involves the heating, evaporation, and deposition of the coating material (such as TiN and TiC).
As the evaporated coating material atoms pass through the glow zone, a small portion becomes ionized and, under the influence of the electric field, flies toward the workpiece, striking the surface with energies of several thousand electron volts. They can penetrate the substrate to a depth of several nanometers, significantly improving the coating's adhesion. Unionized evaporated material atoms are directly deposited on the workpiece to form a film. The sputtering of inert gas ions and coating material ions on the workpiece surface also removes contaminants, thereby improving adhesion.
The technologies used by ion vacuum coating machines, evaporation coating machines and magnetron sputtering coating machines are different. These coating technology principles also have their own advantages. Different coating methods can be selected according to the coating workpiece and film layer to meet market demand.
