Has anyone faced the problem of intensive arcing during plasma etching of ceramic substrate in PVD technology? What is a proper way to prepare ceramic/cermet surface before coating to reduce arcing?
I agree with Ivan. High pressure is the cause of arcing. You may need to allow your material to outgas for a few minutes before starting you process. If you can close your vacuum valve, you can watch your rate of rise to determine if outgassing is your problem.
Thank you for the answers. Pressure in the chamber is about 10^-5 mbar, I haven't yet noticed any significant pressure raise during the process. Furthermore, arcing is much weaker if the surface has already already been coated with a thin layer. It seems that surface itself may be the problem,or the fact that insulating ceramic samples are mounted on a conducting metal spindle..
Is your substrate covering the entire chuck. Any gap between chuck and substrate may cause high localized fields resulting in arcing.
Thank you for the answer. Yes there are gaps between the substrates, I think I have to figure out a better way to mount bigger quantities of indexable cutting inserts.
We had similar issue. Please check if you have grounded the electrode efficiently. We could resolve after proper/good grounding of electrode.
It's good to hear that I'm not the only one facing this issue. Did you also try different ways to mount the substrates? Does the spacing between them matter?
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