Method for producing cubic zirconia layers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9945024-B2
Application number	US-201013497283-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 24, 2010
Priority date	Sep 25, 2009
Publication date	Apr 17, 2018
Grant date	Apr 17, 2018

Abstract

In order to produce zirconia-based layers on a deposition substrate, wherein reactive spark deposition using pulsed spark current and/or the application of a magnetic field that is perpendicular to the spark target are employed, a mixed target comprising elemental zircon and at least one stabilizer is used, or a zirconium target comprising elemental zirconium is used, wherein in addition to oxygen, nitrogen is used as the reactive gas. As an alternative, combined with the use of the mixed target, nitrogen can also be used as the reactive gas in addition to oxygen.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for producing a zirconia-based layer on a deposition substrate, comprising:
providing a mixed spark target in which materials of the mixed spark target are separately present in the target, the materials of the mixed spark target comprising elemental zirconium and at least one stabilizer; and
depositing the zirconia-based layer on the deposition substrate by using reactive spark evaporation of the mixed spark target using pulsed spark current and/or applying a magnetic field that is perpendicular to the mixed spark target.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the layer is produced in a cubic and/or tetragonal crystal structure.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein an oxygen partial pressure is chosen to be greater than 0.1 Pa.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a concentration ratio of zirconia and stabilizer of the layer is essentially given by a concentration ratio of elemental zirconium and stabilizer of the mixed target.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein, by selecting a concentration of the stabilizers in the mixed target, the cubic and/or tetragonal crystal structure is achieved.

6. The method according to claim 3 , wherein an oxygen partial pressure, which is at least essentially a free setting parameter in terms of achieving a cubic and/or tetragonal crystal structure, is used for determining a layer morphology.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a reactive gas, in addition to oxygen, includes nitrogen.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the layer is produced in a cubic and/or tetragonal crystal structure.

9. The method according to claim 7 , wherein, by setting pressure ratios during the reactive spark evaporation, a layer is generated containing zircon, oxygen and nitrogen, with cubic and/or tetragonal crystal structure.

10. The method according to claim 7 , wherein a proportion of the oxygen is set through a gas flow control device whilst a proportion of the nitrogen is chosen according to a total pressure control device.

11. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the zirconia-based layer is deposited as a pure ZrO2 layer in a cubic crystal structure on a cubic crystallized layer containing zircon, nitrogen and oxygen.

12. The method according to claim 1 or 7 for the production of a layer as a layer in a layer stack.

13. The method according to claim 1 or 7 , wherein the layer is produced as multi-layer coating by varying a content of oxygen/nitrogen.

14. The method according to claim 1 or 7 , wherein the deposition of the layer occurs at a substrate temperature between 200° C. and 700° C.

15. The method according to claim 1 or 7 , wherein a that the forming of a cubic or tetragonal phase occurs while not in a thermal state of equilibrium.

16. The method according to claim 1 or 7 , wherein oxides of other metals than zirconium are integrated into a material of the layer.

17. The method according to claim 1 or 7 , wherein the deposition substrate has a metallic surface,
wherein a supporting layer is deposited onto the metallic surface, and the zirconia-based layer is deposited on the supporting layer.

18. The method according to claim 1 or 7 , wherein no working gas is used.

19. A method of producing a layer that can revert to a monoclinic phase, the method comprising the producing of the zirconia-based layer on the deposition substrate according to claim 11 .

20. A method for producing a solid electrolyte layer in a fuel cell, the method comprising the producing of the zirconia-based layer on the deposition substrate according to claim 1 or 7 .

21. The method according to claim 1 , 6 or 7 , wherein at least one of the following characteristics applies:
the stabilizer is freely chosen;
layer composition, phase composition and layer morphology are set at least essentially independently from one another by means of the adjustment of parameters of a vaporization process;
the layer morphology can be adjusted from glass-like to columnar;
the solid electrolyte layer is produced without stabilizer;
the layer is produced with a gradient of the layer material composition in the direction of its thickness dimension, wherein the morphology and phase can be chosen freely.

22. A method for producing the zirconia-based layer as growth substrate for a YSZ, the method comprising the producing of the zirconia-based layer on the deposition substrate according to claim 1 or 7 .

23. A method for increasing ion transport along grain boundaries, the method comprising the producing of the zirconia-based layer on the deposition substrate according to claim 1 or 7 .

24. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the providing of the mixed spark target comprises producing the mixed spark target by densifying the materials without melting the materials, the materials having different melting points.

25. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mixed spark target is produced by hot isostatic pressing (HIP).

26. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the zirconia-based layer is deposited on a supporting layer that is deposited on a metallic surface of the deposition substrate, the supporting layer comprising ZrN.

27. The method according to claim 26 , wherein the metallic surface comprises Zr.

28. The method according to claim 27 , wherein the deposition substrate comprises Zr.

29. The method according to claim 26 , wherein the supporting layer consists of ZrN.

30. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the deposition substrate comprises Zr.

Assignees

• Ramm Juergen
• Widrig Beno
• Oerlikon Surface Solutions Ag Pfaeffikon

Inventors

• Ramm Jürgen
• Widrig Beno

Classifications

• C23C14/0021 Primary

  Reactive sputtering or evaporation · CPC title

• C23C14/083

  of refractory metals or yttrium · CPC title

• C23C14/0676

  Oxynitrides · CPC title

• C23C14/0042

  Controlling partial pressure or flow rate of reactive or inert gases with feedback of measurements · CPC title

• C23C14/325

  Electric arc evaporation · CPC title