page_title: Electron-beam physical vapor deposition
section_title: Introduction
hierarchical_section_title: Electron-beam physical vapor deposition / Introduction
caption_attribution_description: English: This image depicts an electron beam deposition scheme where there is no direct line of sight from the filament to the deposition material.
context_page_description: Electron-beam physical vapor deposition, or EBPVD, is a form of physical vapor deposition in which a target anode is bombarded with an electron beam given off by a charged tungsten filament under high vacuum. The electron beam causes atoms from the target to transform into the gaseous phase. These atoms then precipitate into solid form, coating everything in the vacuum chamber with a thin layer of the anode material.
context_section_description: Thin-film deposition is a process applied in the semiconductor industry to grow electronic materials, in the aerospace industry to form thermal and chemical barrier coatings to protect surfaces against corrosive environments, in optics to impart the desired reflective and transmissive properties to a substrate and elsewhere in industry to modify surfaces to have a variety of desired properties. The deposition process can be broadly classified into physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In CVD, the film growth takes place at high temperatures, leading to the formation of corrosive gaseous products, and it may leave impurities in the film. The PVD process can be carried out at lower deposition temperatures and without corrosive products, but deposition rates are typically lower. Electron-beam physical vapor deposition, however, yields a high deposition rate from 0.1 to 100 μm/min at relatively low substrate temperatures, with very high material utilization efficiency. The schematic of an EBPVD system is shown in Fig 1.
caption: Fig 1. Electromagnetic alignment. The ingot is held at a positive potential relative to the filament. To avoid chemical interactions between the filament and the ingot material, the filament is kept out of sight. A magnetic field is employed to direct the electron beam from its source to the ingot location. An additional electric field can be used to steer the beam over the ingot surface allowing uniform heating.
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