Physical vapor deposition

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Physical vapor deposition (PVD) is a technique used to deposit thin films of various materials onto various surfaces (e.g., of semiconductor wafers) by physical means, as compared to chemical vapor deposition.

PVD is used in the manufacture of items including semiconductor devices, aluminized PET film for balloons and snack bags, and coated cutting tools for metalworking.

Leading manufacturers of PVD tools include Applied Materials (~78.1% market share in 2004), Novellus Systems (~6.2% market share in 2004), and Oerlikon Balzers coatings (~4.8% market share in 2004). Specialty and custom PVD equipment suppliers include Mustang Vacuum Systems (http://www.mustangvac.com), Platit, Metaplas Ionon, Angstrom Engineering, Advanced Energy, Johnsen Ultravac, Plasma Quest Limited, tectra and Denton Vacuum. Besides PVD tools for fabrication special smaller tools mainly for scientific purposes have been developed. They mainly serve the purpose of extreme thin films like atomic layers and are used mostly for small substrates. A good example are mini e-beam evaporators which can deposit monolayers of virtually all materials with melting points up to 3.500°C.

Leading consumers of PVD tools for fabrication include Intel, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor.^{[citation needed]}

Variants of PVD include

• Evaporative deposition
• Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition
• Sputter deposition
• Pulsed laser deposition
• High velocity oxygen fuel

See thin-film deposition for a more general discussion of this class of manufacturing technique.

[edit] External links

• mini electron beam evaporator for scientific thin film application

• PVD coatings theory Information about PVD theory and equipment