The plasma polymer coatings were deposited in a laboratory
scaled device equipped with a SHC module. The assembly of the
laboratory devices and the principle working method are described
elsewhere [4]. Two substrates sized 300 mm×650 mm were attached
face to face in the device to form a hollow cathode assembly. In
contrast to former works [14], where substrates were held on
negative potential, substrates were grounded in this work. The size
of the coated area on the substrates was 280 mm×240 mm. The
plasma discharge was fed by pulsed direct current (dc) with discharge
power of 1.2 kW. Tetramethylsilane (TMS, 99.9% by ABCR GmbH & Co.
KG) with a flow rate of 400 sccm was used as precursor, carried by
argon (Ar, 99.999% by Linde) with a flow rate of 200 sccm, resulting in
a gas pressure of 0.4 Pa in the device chamber. The coating thickness
was adjusted by the control of deposition time, e.g. after an operating
time of 11 s a coating thickness of 300 nm was obtained.