Titanium nitride (TIN) films were deposited on AISI 304 stainless steel substratesusing hollow cathode plasma physical vapor deposition (HC-PVD).Titanium was introduced byeroding the Ti cathode nozzle and TiN was formed in the presence of a nitrogen plasma excited byradio frequency (RF).The substrate bias voltage was varied from 0 to -300 V and the uniformityin film thickness,surface roughness,crystal size,microhardness and wear resistance for the filmwith a diameter of 20 mm was evaluated. Although the central zone of the plasma had thehighest ion density,the film thickness did not vary appreciably across the sample.The resultsfrom atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed a low surface roughness dominated by an island-likemorphology with a similar crystal size on the entire surface.Higher microhardness was measuredat the central zone of the sample. The sample treated at -200 V had excellent tribologicalproperties and uniformity.
