Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition

E-Beam or Electron Beam Evaporation is a form of Physical Vapor Deposition in which the target material to be used as a coating is bombarded with an electron beam from a charged tungsten filament to evaporate and convert it to a gaseous state for deposition on the material to be coated. Taking place in a high vacuum chamber, these atoms or molecules in a vapor phase then precipitate and form a thin film coating on the substrate.

E-Beam Evaporation, which is a Thermal Evaporation process and Sputtering are the two most common types of Physical Vapor Deposition or PVD. Of these two processes, the E-Beam Deposition technique has several clear advantages for many types of applications. It permits the direct transfer of energy with the Electron Beam to the target material to be evaporated making it ideal for metals with high melting points. Electron Beam Evaporation can yield significantly higher deposition rates - from 0.1 nm per minute to 100 nm per minute - resulting in higher density film coatings with increased adhesion to the substrate.

E-Beam Evaporation also has very high material utilization efficiency compared to other PVD processes reducing costs. The E-Beam system only heats the target source material, not the entire crucible, resulting in a lower degree of contamination from the crucible. By concentrating the energy on the target rather than the entire vacuum chamber, it helps reduce the possibility of heat damage to the substrate. Several different layers of coating from different target materials can be applied with a multiple crucible E-Beam evaporator without breaking the vacuum making it adapt easily to a variety of lift-off masking techniques.

Although E-Beam Evaporation is used in a wide variety of applications, it is particularly efficient in transferring pure and precise metal coatings that require high melting temperatures to substrates on the atomic and molecular level.