FOROB II

BAVARIAN JOINT RESEARCH PROGRAM FOR SURFACE TECHNOLOGY

II.4 Smoothed diamond coatings as heat straddlers and tribo pairings

Within the scope of the present project diamond coating for functional applications is to be developed. Particularly the high thermal conductivity and the good tribological properties of diamond shall be fed to technical utilisation. Concretely the project revolves around CVD diamond coating of W/Cu rep. Mo/Cu heat sinks for substrate application in electronics and of SiC sliding elements for terotechnology.

A diamond coating deposited upon W/Cu rep. Mo/Cu heat sinks acts as heat straddler in power and optical electronics. Because of its superior thermal conductivity it is supposed to spread the waste heat of the components more homogenous to the heat sink and hence lower the working temperature of the compnents. Thus service life and use reliability of the electronic compounds can be enhanced significantly.

SiC acts as seal and bearing material in chemical terotechnology. The desiderative corrosion resistance of residual silicon facing alkaline solutions and the unsatisfactory tribological performance for dry running and mixed friction is a drawback for this material. The deposition of a chemically inert CVD diamond coating may improve the corrosion resistance significantly. Additionally smooth diamond coatings exhibit outstanding tribolical properties.

The two different developments for application are linked by a common scientific basis. The behavior of diamond coatings in terms of wetting and friction is situated in the foreground. Particularly the influence of surface morphology and chemical bond status on these processes shall be investigated.