Deposition sources of various kinds are suitable for thin film deposition of numerous materials in a wide range of applications. The type of deposition source depends on the exact nature of both the materials to be deposited and the desired film properties. Types of sources include ion beam deposition sources, magnetron sputtering cathodes, thermal evaporators for both organic and inorganic materials and electron beam evaporators.
Vacuum Coater (PVD)
A Vacuum Coater is a physical vapour deposition (PVD) source. PVD is characterized by a process in which the material goes from a condensed phase to a vapour phase and then back to a thin film condensed phase. The most common PVD processes are sputtering and evaporation. PVD is used in the manufacture of items which require thin films for mechanical, optical, chemical or electronic functions. Examples include semiconductor devices such as thin film solar panels, aluminized PET film for food packaging and balloons, and titanium nitride coated cutting tools for metalworking. Vacuum Coaters can range from a small bench top to a large roll-to roll (R2R) coater.
Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)
Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is a chemical process used to produce high-purity, high-performance solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films. In a typical CVD process, the wafer (substrate) is exposed to one or more volatile precursors, which react and/or decompose on the substrate surface to produce the desired deposit.
Ion Beam Deposition
Ion beam deposition provides smooth films with exceptional uniformity and sub-Angstrom thickness precision. Key applications include MRAM and hard disk drive read heads, plus metal gate deposition for advanced CMOS.
Magnetron Sputtering
Sputter deposition is a physical vapour deposition (PVD) method of depositing thin films by sputtering material from a target. The sputtered material then deposits onto a substrate to be coated. The sputtering gas is often an inert gas such as argon. Magnetron sputtering equipment can range in size from small bench-top units to coat e.g. SEM samples right through to large scale industrial installations for coating of architectural glass. Various techniques are available including Reactive Sputtering and HIPIMS.
Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) is a method of laying down atomic layers of materials on to substrates. It is a slow deposition process (typically less than 1000nm per hour), which allows the films to grow epitaxially and requires proportionally better vacuum to achieve the same impurity levels as other deposition techniques, typically systems operate in the high to ultra-high vacuum region.
Nanoparticles
Nanoparticles are the building blocks in the field of nanotechnology that in broadest terms signifies the understanding and controlling of properties of matter at dimensions of roughly 1–100nm.
The properties of nanoparticles often differ markedly from those of larger particles of the same substance.
Since the typical diameter of an atom is between 0.15 and 0.6 nm, a large fraction of the nanoparticle's material lies within a few atomic diameters from its surface.
Therefore, the properties of that surface layer may dominate over those of the bulk material.
This effect is particularly strong for nanoparticles dispersed in a medium of different composition since the interactions between the two materials at their interface also becomes significant.