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2006
Conference Paper
Titel
Microtribology. Carbon based coatings on micro structured surfaces
Abstract
Amorphous diamond-like carbon films like a-C and a-C:H are well known for their excellent tribological properties. Besides applications in macroscopic systems like automotive components the use of this class of coatings in microsystems is growing. In this paper we will discuss the tribological propertiesof a-C, a-C:H with respect to preperation parameters as well as the influence of micro structured substances coated with such carbon layers. Besides the optimization of microtribological properties due to a variation of essential process parameters, e.g. substrate bias, further improvement can be realized by optimizing the contact situation of the sliding partners. For investigation of the friction coefficient pin-on-disc test for the mesoscopic regime, an oscillating friction tester for the regime were performed. It turned out, that for micro- and nanotribological considerations the actual contact area plays an important role. Due to tailoring the resulting contact pressure by micro structured surfaces the friction coefficient can be modified significantly. The influence of the pattern geometry will be discussed. For an optimized combination of thin carbon coatings and micro patterned surfaces the friction coefficient was reduced by more than 50% by increasing the resulting local pressure.