A sliding element for use in an internal combustion engine may include a ferrous base having a peripheral sliding surface covered by a protective surface layer, the protective surface layer including at least one nitride applied via at least one of physical vapour deposition and a nitrided layer. The peripheral sliding surface may have a diamond like carbon (DLC) coating disposed thereon. The coating may include at least one of (a) one or more transition layers composed of WC1-x and (b) an adhesive layer of metallic chromium with a crystal structure. The coating may include an intermediate layer of metal DLC, the metal may be tungsten in a multilayer structure of a-C:H:W and a-C:H, and an outer layer of metal-free DLC.

The invention provides substrates with a multi-layer coating, comprising in order: i) the substrate; ii) a seed layer; ill) a barrier layer deposited via a CVD method; and iv) a functional layer deposited via a PVD method, and methods of making such coatings. The coatings of the invention have been shown to possess good resistance to corrosion.

A protective coating layer, an electronic device including such a protective coating layer, and the methods of making the same are provided. The electronic device includes a substrate, a thin film circuit layer disposed over the substrate, and a protective coating layer disposed over the thin film circuit layer. The protective coating layer includes a first coating and a second coating disposed over the first coating. Each coating has a cross-plane thermal conductivity in a direction normal to a respective coating surface equal to or higher than 0.5 W/(m*K). The first coating and the second coating have different crystal or amorphous structures, different crystalline orientations, different compositions, or a combination thereof to provide different nanoindentation hardness. The first coating has a hardness lower than that of the second coating.

A piston ring for a piston of a reciprocating internal combustion engine. The piston ring comprises a body having an outer contact surface. A tribological coating is formed on the outer contact surface of the body. The tribological coating comprises a quaternary Cr—V—Ti—N system. In one form, the tribological coating is deposited on the outer contact surface of the body as a stack of multiple layers.

A method for depositing carbon on a substrate in a processing chamber includes arranging the substrate on a substrate support in the processing chamber. The substrate includes a carbon film having a first thickness formed on at least one underlying layer of the substrate. The method further includes performing a first etching step to etch the substrate to form features on the substrate, remove portions of the carbon film, and decrease the first thickness of the carbon film, selectively depositing carbon onto remaining portions of the carbon film, and performing at least one second etching step to etch the substrate to complete the forming of the features on the substrate.

A hard coating for cutting tools according to the present invention is a hard coating for cutting tools which is formed on and adjacent to a hard base material by a PVD method, and is characterized in that the thickness of the entire hard coating is 0.5 to 10 μm, and the hard coating includes one or more nitride layers and one or more oxide layers. Each of the one or more nitride layers has a thickness of 0.1 to 5.0 μm and is composed of Al.sub.aTi.sub.bMe.sub.cN (wherein Me is at least one selected from Si, W, Nb, Mo, Ta, Hf, Zr, and Y, and 0.55≤a≤0.7, 0.2<b≤0.45, and 0≤c<0.1) or Al.sub.aCr.sub.bMe.sub.cN (wherein Me is at least one selected from Si, W, Nb, Mo, Ta, Hf, Zr, and Y, and 0.55≤a≤0.7, 0.2<b≤0.45, and 0≤c<0.1) in a cubic phase, and each of the one or more oxide layers has a thickness of 0.1 to 3.0 μm and is composed of γ-Al.sub.2O.sub.3 in a cubic phase. When the number of compositionally discontinuous interfaces throughout the hard coating including the hard base material is n, the n satisfies 4≤n≤9, and the ratio of the microhardness (H1) of the nitride layer to the microhardness (H2) of the oxide layer satisfies 1.03<H1/H2<1.3, and the ratio of the elastic modulus of the nitride layer (E1) to the elastic modulus of the oxide layer (E2) satisfies 1.1<E1/E2<1.3. Each of the nitride layers and each of the oxide layers have an elastic deformation resistance index (H/E) of 0.07 to 0.09 and a plastic deformation resistance index (H.sup.3/E.sup.2) of 0.13 to 0.29, and the elastic deformation resistance index (H/E) of the entire hard coating is 0.09 to 0.12, and the plastic deformation resistance index (H.sup.3/E.sup.2) of the entire hard coating is 0.29 to 0.32.

A cutting tool comprises a rake face and a flank face, the cutting tool being composed of a substrate made of a cubic boron nitride sintered material and a coating provided on the substrate, the coating including a MAlN layer, when a cross section of the MAlN layer is subjected to an electron backscattering diffraction image analysis to determine a crystal orientation of each of the crystal grains of the M.sub.xAl.sub.1−xN and a color map is created based thereon, then on the color map, the flank face having the MAlN layer occupied in area by 45% to 75% by crystal grains of the M.sub.xAl.sub.1−xN having a (111) plane with a normal thereto extending in a direction within 25 degrees with respect to a direction in which a normal to the flank face extends, the MAlN layer having a residual stress of −2 GPa to −0.1 GPa.

A coated cutting tool comprises a substrate and a coating layer formed on a surface of the substrate, and has a rake face and a flank. The coating layer comprises an alternating laminate structure in which first compound layers containing AlN and second compound layers containing a compound are laminated in an alternating manner, the compound having a composition represented by formula (1) below:

(Ti.sub.1-xAl.sub.x)N  (1)

(wherein x satisfies 0.40≤x≤0.70). An average thickness T.sub.1 per first compound layer is 5 nm or more to 160 nm or less, and an average thickness T.sub.2 per second compound layer is 8 nm or more to 200 nm or less. A ratio of T.sub.1 to T.sub.2 is 0.10 or more to 0.80 or less. An average thickness T.sub.3 of the alternating laminate structure is 2.5 μm or more to 7.0 μm or less. A ratio (H/E) of hardness H to elastic modulus E is 0.065 or more to 0.085 or less at the rake face or the flank.

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the fabrication of integrated circuits. More particularly, the embodiments described herein provide techniques for depositing high-density films for patterning applications. In one or more embodiments, a method of processing a substrate is provided and includes flowing a deposition gas containing a hydrocarbon compound and a dopant compound into a processing volume of a process chamber having a substrate positioned on an electrostatic chuck, where the processing volume is maintained at a pressure of about 0.5 mTorr to about 10 Torr. The method also includes generating a plasma at the substrate by applying a first RF bias to the electrostatic chuck to deposit a doped diamond-like carbon film on the substrate, where the doped diamond-like carbon film has a density of greater than 2 g/cc and a stress of less than −500 MPa.

A multilayer abradable coating includes at least one first abradable layer; and at least one second abradable layer, wherein the first abradable layer and the second abradable layer have different properties related to erosion resistance.