Microstructure and load bearing capacity of TiN/NbN superlattice coatings deposited on medical grade CoCrMo alloy by HIPIMS

In recent years significant progress has been made in the application of various ceramic, namely Metal nitride (MeN) functional coatings to engineer the surfaces of medical implants utilising metal-on-metal (MoM) articulation. This article reports on the load bearing capacity and structural response of TiN/NbN superlattice coatings deposited on medical grade CoCrMo alloy substrate under the application of localised load and the subsequent crack formation mechanism. The coatings have been deposited by mixed High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering-Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS-UBM) process. In the case of TiN/NbN coating deposited on CoCrMo substrate where Ecoating/Esubstrate is as high as 1.81 indicating that the substrate does not provide the necessary load bearing support for the brittle thin film, the utilisation of the Berkovich indentation technique proved to be a potent approach to study coating material as well as structural response to applied concentrated load. FIB/SEM analyses of the indented coatings revealed that in the hard-on-soft material systems cracks will initiate due to sub-coating substrate deformation and then propagate towards the coating surface. The FIB/SEM and low magnification XTEM analysis showed that an exceptionally strong TiN/NbN coating substrate adhesion bonding was achieved due to the utilisation of the HIPIMS pre-treatment. High resolution XTEM analyses revealed, for the first time, that during the indentation a collective rotation and alignment of the individual layers of the superlattice stack takes place without compromising coatings integrity which is clear evidence for the exeptionally high coating fracture toughness. The high toughness of the superlattice structured TiN/NbN coatings combined with their exceptionally high adhesion on madical grade CoCrMo ranks them as a strong candidate for medical implant applications. •Superlattice TiN/NbN coatings on CoCrMo alloy successfully produced by HIPIMS.•Exceptionally high adhesion of TiN/NbN coating deposited on CoCrMo alloy achieved.•Layer alignment under load is the reason for high toughness in superlattice coatings.•In hard coating on soft substrate systems cracks initiate due to substrate deformation.•Superlattice TiN/NbN coatings are strong candidate to protect medical implants.