Design of a fiber coating system for physical vapor deposition

The increase in electrical conductivity of silica fiber yarn by the continuous deposition of titanium was experimentally evaluated. A system was developed for the continuous fabrication of the titanium coated yarn in a magnetron sputtering system. The bending stress in a coated fiber and preliminary coating experiments were used to evaluate the design for non-destructive transportation of the coated yarn. The electrical resistance was shown to decrease with increasing deposition times and increasing power levels. Increasing the number of contact points between adjacent segments of yarn was also shown to decrease the electrical resistance of a bundle of yarn segments.