E-Beam evaporation is nothing but a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique that is used for depositing thin films of various metals and oxides.
A powerful electron beam from a tungsten filament is generated and it through magnetic field to hit the source materials.
The beam has adequate energy to vaporize the materials underhigh vacuum or reactive gas atmospheres. Typical vacuum can range from ultra-high vacuum to 1×10-4Torr. The electron beam of 6 to 10KV is generated which heatsthe material to its melting and vaporization points.
The condensation of vapors occurs on the object or substrate of choice and coats it with the thin film of the selected material accordingly.
There are several PVD classes for vacuum coating processes in which the substance is evaporated and transported in a vacuum. After that, the evaporated material condenses on the surface of substrates as a thin film.
Typical distance between the substrate and beam source is 8 to 12 inches depending upon the beam power, required deposition rate, film uniformity, and size of the wafer. Thin films can be deposited at room temperature or elevated temperatures.
E-beam PVD process thus has three mail components and these are:
- Generating energetic electron beam from the e-beam source,
- E-beam-material interaction to achieve melting and vaporization of material
- Transportation of evaporated material in vacuum or reactive atmosphere
- Deposition of evaporated materials on the substrate.
Earlier PVD processes used to be costly because of expensive vacuum equipmentand slow deposition rates but recently the cost of e-beam PVD processes has been decreased and quality of material and process is improved. Its ability to deposit large area films at high uniformity led to increase in the demand of PVD process.
Now, excellent PVD service providers are available on the internet,which provide the best thin film material for federal government and industrial uses. Blue Wave Semiconductors advance ebeam systems are cost effective, high quality, and high throughput. These systems can be integrated with laser deposition, sputtering, and some CVD processes such as graphene.