Optimized Wire Treatment for Smart Devices - OWIT

Coordinating Institution: CRP Gabriel Lippmann
Other Partner(s): Leibniz-Institut für Oberflächenmodifizierung (D) , Université Henri Poincaré, Nancy (F)
From: 01/04/2009
To: 31/03/2012
Budget: 794,000.00€
Contact(s): Wirtz Tom

Summary

An increasing interest in wires and fibres with special surface treatments is currently observed. Such “intelligent” or “smart” wires and fibres have applications in various high-tech fields (manufacturing of energy generating fabrics, wires with piezo-electric effects, wires for sensor applications, wires with integrated anti-corrosion protection, wear resistant wires for cutting applications, …). A method of choice to confer such intelligent properties to wires and fibres consists in performing an ion implantation combined with a deposition process on their surface.

This project aims at setting-up a plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) process dedicated to the treatment of wires and fibres. In 2009, a first prototype instrument based on a plasma configuration, which was determined during the initial stages of the project, has been designed. This UHV instrument includes a differential pumping system based on capillaries allowing the continuous circulating of wires from coils situated at the air-side, a plasma treatment chamber, plasma diagnostic tools and dedicated supplying and operating electronics.

This instrument is now fully assembled and is ready for testing and characterization. The results obtained on this first prototype will allow the project team to optimize the plasma configuration in order to further increase the performances of the beta-version of the prototype. In parallel to the instrumental development, an application focussed on piezoelectric fibres and wires was run on existing non-optimized instrumentation in order to highlight the progress made on an instrumental and process level on a typical application.