Properties of Thermo-Conductive Ceramic-Based Coatings Deposited Using Fore-Vacuum Plasma-Cathode Electron Source

The work is devoted to investigation of thermal conductive properties of dielectric coatings deposited in the course of the electron-beam plasma-assisted sequential evaporation of solid-state dielectrics (aluminum nitride AlN, and aluminum oxide Al2O3 ceramics). The coatings were fabricated using the authors' original developments: the so-called fore-vacuum plasma-cathode electron sources. These facilities enables electron beams to be generated at previously inaccessible elevated pressures (in the fore-vacuum range 1-100 Pa). During operation of such devices, the beam plasma compensates the accumulation of the electron-beam charge on a dielectric target and provides generation of active nitrogen ions and atoms that prevent creation of free aluminum and decrease electrical conductivity of deposited coatings. The work aimed at fabrication of thermally conductive ceramic coatings of various functionality to be used in microelectronic devices. We present here the experimental results on depositing thermal conductive coatings based on aluminum nitride and aluminum oxide ceramics. The elemental composition and thermal properties of deposited coatings have been studied.