July 2018
It's has been a busy few months, with a string of conference and exhibition events attended by Gencoa, including SVC TechCon, ICCG, AIMCAL Europe and HIPIMS conference.
Gencoa's Optix gas analyser has been on display at each event, providing customers with live demonstrations to illustrate the ease of use and robustness.
Technical presentations focussing on Optix were given at SVC, AIMCAL Europe, and the European Vacuum Congress (Monitoring of volatile vacuum species using remote optical emission spectroscopy by Dr Dermot Monaghan).
Optix is proving a true revelation for sensing chemicals in vacuum, with success in all areas currently tested, including ALD and vacuum/atmospheric CVD.
Although already proven to deliver strong performance for a range of applications, Optix has huge potential for providing benefits to further applications, such OLED production monitoring and control. If you are active in OLED development or manufacture, we'd like to hear from you to arrange a trial of the Optix sensor.
The popular 12th International Conference on Coatings on Glass and Plastics proved to be an upbeat event, as the European large area glass market is in better health than in recent years. The sun was also shining on this wine growing region on the banks of the Main river. Gencoa were present with AVALUXE, exhibiting an Optix unit on the stand, with and a poster presentation on transparent carbon coatings.
Gencoa have a range of products for the glass market which includes new products such as Optix and Active Anodes, but also the long-established Speedflo multi-channel reactive gas controller. Gencoa recently passed the landmark of its 1000th Speedflo controller in the market. Indeed, over 100 control units have been shipped already in 2018, so the popularity of Speedflo shows no signs of reducing, and it remains a clear leader for reactive gas control processes for a host of reasons which are recognised by our customers.
ICCG13 will be held in March 2020 in the Lion City of Braunschweig.
It was the turn of Sheffield to host the annual HIPIMS exhibiton and conference in June, which attracted over 100 attendees. Dr Dermot Monaghan presented Deposition of hard highly transparent abrasion-resistant DLC on glass, a joint paper with Nano4Energy covering the application of a thin transparent carbon coating on glass by a dual rotatable magnetron with HIPIMS or switching DC power.
The talk was well-received and was the first in a series of presentations based upon applying a positive pulse to the target after the negative HIPIMS pulse. This positive pulse, in the words of our R&D manager Victor Bellido-Gonzalez, is a 'game changer' for HIPIMS, which has struggled to gain widespread use in markets other than the cutting tool sectors.
The high ionisation created by HIPIMS is normally attracted back to the target in the plasma on phase. This leads to lower rates and fewer ions reaching the substrate to enhance the coating structures. The application of a 'pulse or kick' of positive voltage to the target expels the positive ions away to reduce the return to the target.
In terms of carbon layer deposition, this effect doubles the hardness, as the impact of the ions on the growing film is a beneficial form of ion assistance. This positive pulse works in unison with the Active Anode to extract electrons away from the substrate region and maximise ion impacts. Click to view the full presentation
Gencoa's partner Nano4Energy have now built this important positive voltage into their HIPIMS power supplies as a standard feature. Visit www.hipv.eu for product information.
The next HIPIMS will be at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST in 2019. It was announced that the program will invite talks from all sputtering related topics, and will not be restricted to HIPIMS work. We predict a lot more 'positive' news from that event!
Gencoa/University of Surrey are recruiting for a student to undertake a 4 year Doctorate level training in Positive Pulse Plasma Technology. Time would be split between the Centre for Doctoral Training in Micro and NanoMaterials and Technologies at Surrey University and Gencoa. The position is fully sponsored by Gencoa and EPSRC and would be due to start in September 2018.
Interested UK candidates can contact Gencoa or Surrey University. For more information, visit: www.surrey.ac.uk/postgraduate/micro-and-nanomaterials-and-technologies-engd
For product information or support, contact sales@gencoa.com or visit www.gencoa.com/worldwide-contacts to find contact details of international support staff and sales agents.
