DLC Coating Systems

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a hard, dense carbon film with low friction, chemical resistance and good transparency in the infrared. This page covers equipment for coating parts in-house. SiSTEM doesn’t run a coating service. The Intlvac Aegis deposits DLC by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) from hydrocarbon precursors, at low temperature. SiSTEM is Intlvac‘s partner for the UK, Ireland and most of Europe.

DLC for infrared optics

On high-index IR materials, a single DLC layer acts as an anti-reflection coating and protects the optic against wear, abrasion and chemical attack. The Aegis coats silicon, germanium and chalcogenides, as well as II-VI compounds, optical glasses, sapphire, metals and plastics. The refractive index can be tuned to the application.

Qualified to recognised standards

Intlvac’s DLC is qualified to MIL-C-48497A and MIL-C-675C, the TS1888 sand slurry wiper test, ISO 9211-4 abrasion and adhesion tests, and ISO 9022 environmental tests including damp heat, temperature shock, salt mist and solar radiation. Its datasheet gives uniformity better than ±1% Tavg over 508 mm, run to run.

DLC hard masks for lithium niobate

On thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) and LNOI wafers, Aegis DLC is used as the etch mask. Etched on the Nanoquest II, it gives 4:1 or better selectivity of DLC to lithium niobate. As a hard mask, the film has a roughness of 2.5 Å.

Tribological coatings

DLC’s hardness and low friction also make it a wear coating for mechanical parts, and the Aegis’s low process temperature lets it coat temperature-sensitive substrates.

Working with SiSTEM

SiSTEM is Intlvac’s partner for the UK, Ireland and most of Europe. We scope your system with you and Intlvac’s engineers, and stay your local contact through quotation, installation and after-sales. Tell us your substrates, part sizes and the test standard your coating has to meet, and we’ll take it to Intlvac.