Thin Solid Films 442 (2003) 107–116 0040-6090/03/$ - see front matter  2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0040-6090(03)00956-8 Coatings on plastics with the PICVD technology M. Kuhr*, S. Bauer, U. Rothhaar, D. Wolff SCHOTT Glas, Hattenbergstr. 10, Mainz D-55122, Germany Abstract Plasma impulse chemical vapor deposition (PICVD) was developed by Schott more than 10 years ago. It was the first CVD – based coating technology for the mass production of optical coatings on glass components (cold light mirrors, infrared reflective coatings and others). During the last few years, a modified PICVD-process for the deposition of three different functional coatings on plastics has been developed. These functions—anti-reflective, anti-scratch and easy-to-clean layers—are provided by only one technology—PICVD. This is a major progress compared for instance to the standard production line of polymer based eyeglass lenses, which uses a PVD process for anti-reflective coating, dip coating for anti-scratch and plasma polymerization for easy-to- clean coatings. Moreover, the development was extended to different kinds of plastics including optical polymers like polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC). Until now, plasma CVD coating technologies were not capable of depositing durable functional coatings on PMMA with a sustained adhesion to the substrate. A completely new layer system on PMMA with an adapted adhesive layer has been developed for these coatings. Durability has been proven by passing different types of functionality tests like tape test, grid test, climate tests or temperature shock tests. In the near future, Schott will start the first mass-production of coatings on plastics with the PICVD technology, e.g. in the telecommunications and automotive business.  2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Adhesion; Optical coatings; Plasma processing and deposition; Surface morphology 1. Introduction Optical coatings on glass such as edge filters, band pass filters or various types of anti-reflection coatings have been state of the art for physical coating technol- ogies (PVD), especially thermal or electron beam evap- oration, for some decades w1x. More recently, ion beam assisted PVD techniques and sputtering have been used to produce high quality optical coatings w2,3x. This is partly due to the enhanced physical properties of these films, but also due to the ability to coat larger substrate areas. In recent years, the use of plasma assisted chem- ical vapor deposition (PACVD) methods have come up as a versatile means of depositing high quality cost effective optical coatings w4x. For many years it has been believed that PACVD could not be a serious alternative for the established PVD methods, because of copious handling of the precursor substances and inferior optical thickness uniformity. Furthermore, no experienc- es concerning a mass production of optical coatings using PACVD were available. However, it has been demonstrated that physical properties of PACVD sam- *Corresponding author. ples are not inferior to those of high quality PVD processes w5x and even mass production of optical coatings is successfully in operation. Schott has devel- oped a special kind of a PACVD process in which the precursor molecules are decomposed by a pulsed micro- wave induced plasma. This technique has been called the plasma impulse chemical vapor deposition (PICVD) and was originally built-up for the deposition of the core material in silica preforms to produce optical fibers w6x. Later on, the process has been refined for the deposition of multilayer optical coatings for cold light reflectors and energy saving halogen lamps. During the last few years, plastics have substituted glass products in many optical applications where low weight, breaking strength as well as easy and flexible formability are of major importance w7x. However, plas- tics are well known to have drawbacks in their chemical resistance, have inferior gas and water barrier properties and show most often a very poor scratch resistance. These drawbacks of polymers can be overcome by applying an appropriate coating onto the substrates. The greatest challenge is the sustained adhesion of the layer systems to the substrate w8x, even after hard environ-