Dr Arutiun P Ehiasarian from MERI's Nanotechnology Centre for Physical Vapor Deposition Research (PVD) was recently honored at a conference in the Netherlands. Dr Ehiasarian received the Industrial Accolade of Huettinger Electronics for his contributions towards the successful development of the first industrially viable High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) power supply.
In the opening addresses the Governor of Limburg, Mr Leon Frisen and Dr Thomas Krug, CEO of Hauzer Techno Coating, emphasised the importance of the close cooperation between academia and industry and recognised the long term Sheffield Hallam University (SHU)-Hauzer cooperation as an excellent example. This was further strengthened by Peter Hayes, from SHU's Enterprise Centre, who delivered the opening speech at the official conference dinner.
High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS), is a technology for surface pre-treatment and deposition of extremely dense very smooth and highly adherent thin films in vacuum. These serve as protective, functional coatings in a wide range of applications from aerospace to microelectronics. HIPIMS is regarded as a major breakthrough in the last 30 years in the field of Physical Vapour Deposition. The technology was first time up-scaled by Dr A Ehiasarian at the Nanotechnology Centre for PVD Research at MERI in 2003 in the frame of EC "HIPIMS" CRAFT project. SHU holds an EU and USA patents on the surface pre- treatment for coating adhesion enhancement using HIPIMS. This together with the availability of industrially viable power supply boosted the industrialisation of HIPIMS technology worldwide. Four European and one American companies have SHU license to use HIPIMS for pre-treatment in their coating systems and production technologies. This success was possible due to the close and fruitful cooperation between the scientists from the Nanotechnology Centre for PVD Research in MERI and the University's Enterprise Centre.
SHU and Hauzer jointly organise the HIPIMS conference, which is an annual event taking place in Sheffield. It is strongly supported both nationally and internationally by organisations such as UK's Institute of Physics (Ion and Plasma Surface Interaction Group), IonBond International, NAMTEC. This year's fifth edition of the conference took place in Venlo, The Netherlands to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hauzer. More than 100 delegates from Europe, USA and Japan attended the event. The scientific programme included thirty invited speakers delivering talks on PVD and HIPIMS.