Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) Thin films for Hip-Joint Replacement
(Room Room 104-C)
30 Apr 19
11:40 AM
-
12:00 PM
Tracks:
Enabling Sustainability — NexGen Tech for Coatings, Surface Engineering and Smart Manufacturing
Total joint replacements currently have relatively high success rates at 10–15 years; however, increasing ageing and an active population places higher demands on the longevity of the implants. A wear resistant configuration with wear particles that resorb in vivo can potentially increase the lifetime of an implant. Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) has outstanding properties like excellent biocompatibility, low wear rates, high fracture toughness and strength, which has hardness near to CoCr, TiN, CrN, CrCN, ZrO2, Al2O3. For this kind of magnificent properties, it is used in Hip Implants. In this work we have used RF Sputtering Method to synthesize Silicon Nitride. P-doped, N-doped Si wafer and Glass plates are used as substrate material. Sputtered grown Si3N4 thin films are fabricated using different recipes by varying pressure (3mT to 15mT), temperature and time. The characterization of the thin films is presented here. The electrical performance is also depending on the optimized conditions. The thickness of the coating mainly depends on pressure and time of deposition. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are employed to study the samples. A ball on disk arrangement is also used for testing wear rate of samples.