PVD by Vacuum Evaporation:

Vacuum deposited PVD coatings are used for decorative coatings, vapor barrier layers, metallic
conductors and corrosion resistant coatings. Vacuum evaporation uses an evaporation source
where material is thermally vaporized from a heated container, much like how water vapor is
evaporated by boiling, as shown in Figure 3. The evaporation source, which can be heated
electrically or by an electron beam (e-beam) thermally vaporizes the evaporant. The vaporization
is done in a good vacuum so the trajectory of the vaporized a material is line-of-sight. The
vacuum environment reduces contamination from the environment. Typically the gas pressure
range is 10-5 to 10-6 Torr.

One advantage of vacuum evaporation is that the source material can be as simple as granulated
solids at any desired purity. Figure 4 shows a production evaporation machine by Leybold
Optics; it is built using 2 clamshell doors for rapid loading and unloading of parts. Because of the
line-of-sight trajectory masking may be used to define the region of deposition in many cases.

One disadvantage of vacuum evaporation is in the deposition of alloys or compounds where it

can be difficult to deposit coatings with proper composition or stoichiometry. Another
disadvantage is that there may be a low utilization of source material. Very few process controls
are available for tuning of coating properties. For complex surfaces proper fixturing is necessary
to get uniform coatings so moving holders are used to gain uniformity. Depending on the melting
point of the source material high heat loads in the chamber may be encountered.