Determination of Thickness Uniformity of Nickel Coatings Deposited on Zirconium Alloy by Magnetron Sputtering

In this paper, the results of measurements of nickel coating thickness are presented. Ni coatings were deposited onto zirconium alloy Zr-1Nb and Si wafers by dc magnetron sputtering. The thickness of Ni coatings was measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ball abrasion method and non-destructive X-ray diffraction (XRD) method. The developed technique of determination of coating uniformity by grazing incidence XRD method was shown. The estimation of uniformity of Ni coatings with a thickness from 0.5 to 2 mu m was performed. The distribution map of the coating thickness over surface of 20x20 mm was constructed. The deposited coating with higher thickness of 2 mu m has 10% deviation of thickness.