Surface Technologies

Micrograph of a TiO2 /SiO2 -multilayer system on borofloat glass (rim of a crater caused by depth profiling with radio-frequency glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (RF-GDOES)

The division's mission is to develop and foster quality assurance in coating systems and surfaces. Furthermore, the division is concerned with the enhancement of the life time and the quality of products, as well as with failure analysis and damage prevention of new coating materials and components.

Our tasks

• Damage assessment and survey, expert opinions
• Development and support of quality management
• Clear up surface specific damage processes (wear, corrosion, degradation, ageing)
• Characterization of new coating systems, materials, and components manufactured or modified by surface technologies
• Contribution to national and international standardization

Expertise in physical vapor depositon (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), electroplating, thermal spraying and sol-gel deposition as well as in many complex surface characterization techniques is used to anticipate and respond to industry needs in areas such as microelectronics, optics, automotive, medical technology, mechanical engineering, etc. as well as to provide standard reference materials and develop measurement methods.

Research areas

• Development and validation of reference coating systems and reference procedures
• Development and validation of complex test methods for commercial coating systems and component surfaces (e.g. non-destructive short-time corrosion tests; in-situ-NDT)
• Reliability of coatings for wear and corrosion protection, electric, optic, and magnetic functional coatings as well as coating systems for sensors and microsystems
• Quality assurance of coated or surface modified components, methods to examine coatings and surfaces as well as analytical methods
• Development, calibration and validation of sensors of gas, humidity, temperature, pressure, and chemical sensors

Accreditation and certification

• Since 1997 DAP accreditation (DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025; DAP-PL 2614.08)
• The division supports and advises the accreditation of laboratories from industry and research and development laboratories.

Equipment (preparation and examination)

• Deposition methods (PE-CVD, PVD, Sol-Gel, thick film deposition)
• Nanosecond pulslaser system (cleaning of technical surfaces and paper; vapour deposition of multilayers; microstructuring)
• Femtosecond pulslaser system for ultra-precise microstructuring
• Surface and microanalysis (ESCA, AES, TOF-SIMS, RF-/DC-GDOES, SEM, EDX, EXAFS, NEXAFS)
• Optical methods for materials characterization (angle dependent spectroscopic ellipsometry, FT-IR)
• Testing of coatings and coating systems:
  thickness, adhesion, ductility, hardness, Young's modulus (Nanoindenter),
  roughness, topography (AFM, STM, white light interferometer, mechanical and optical styli),
  resistance, permittivity (esp. high frequencies), glancing angle XRD
• Corrosion tests (especially in-situ)
• Determination of the performance under thermal load
• (TG, DTA,TMA)
• Test and calibration facilities for gas and humidity sensors

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