Transparent nanocrystalline diamond coatings and devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10410860-B2
Application number	US-201715676895-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 14, 2017
Priority date	Jul 10, 2015
Publication date	Sep 10, 2019
Grant date	Sep 10, 2019

Abstract

A method for coating a substrate comprises producing a plasma ball using a microwave plasma source in the presence of a mixture of gases. The plasma ball has a diameter. The plasma ball is disposed at a first distance from the substrate and the substrate is maintained at a first temperature. The plasma ball is maintained at the first distance from the substrate, and a diamond coating is deposited on the substrate. The diamond coating has a thickness. Furthermore, the diamond coating has an optical transparency of greater than about 80%. The diamond coating can include nanocrystalline diamond. The microwave plasma source can have a frequency of about 915 MHz.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for coating a substrate, comprising:
producing a plasma ball using a microwave plasma source in the presence of a mixture of gases, the plasma ball having a diameter;
disposing the plasma ball at a first distance above the substrate such that the plasma ball does not contact the substrate, the substrate maintained at a first temperature of less than 400 degrees Celsius; and
maintaining the plasma ball at the first distance from the substrate for a first time;
depositing a diamond coating on the substrate, the diamond coating having a thickness,
wherein, the diamond coating has an optical transparency of greater than about 80 percent.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the diamond coating includes nanocrystalline diamond.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate and/or thin film has a thickness less than a thickness threshold, the thickness enabling the substrate to have an optical transparency of greater than 80%.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the substrate includes at least one of gallium nitride, aluminum gallium nitride, gallium arsenide, germanium, silicon, silicon nitride and silicon carbide.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the microwave plasma source has a frequency of about 915 MHz.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the diameter of the plasma ball is the range of about 15 cms to about 30 cms.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first distance is about 0.1 mm to about 5 mm.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first time is about 20 minutes to about 60 minutes.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the diamond coating is in the range of about 30 nm to about 150 nm.

Assignees

• Uchicago Argonne Llc

Inventors

• Sumant Anirudha V
• Khan Adam

Classifications

• H10P14/3444

  P-type · CPC title

• H10P14/3442

  N-type · CPC title

• H10P14/24

  using chemical vapour deposition [CVD] · CPC title

• H10W40/254

  Diamond · CPC title

• H10P14/3406 Primary

  Carbon, e.g. diamond-like carbon · CPC title