Physical Vapor Deposition

PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coating is a vacuum deposition process that brings solid materials like metals into a vapor phase and deposits the material onto a target surface. PVD coating is used across many diverse industries, including pharmaceuticals, aerospace, jewelry, automotive, and semiconductors.

Decorative Coating

PVD coating is used in many industries for decorative purposes to create visually appealing products and enhance the appearance, color, or texture of an object while also providing protection against wear and tear. We encounter PVD decorative-coated items in our everyday life, such as bathroom fixtures, car interiors, jewelry, and phones.

Hard Coating on Tools

Industrial cutting tools like drilling and milling tools utilize PVD-coated hard metals to extend durability, achieve a longer usable lifetime, and reduce downtime. Typical hard coatings for tooling include Titanium Nitride (TiN), Titanium Aluminum Nitride (TiAlN), and Chromium Nitride (CrN).

Thin Foil Manufacturing

Metal foils act as effective barriers against moisture, oxygen, light, and contaminants, which is why they are commonly used in food and pharmaceutical packaging. These barrier properties help extend product shelf life. Roll coaters are used to create these thin metal foils, such as aluminum foil.

Optical Coating

PVD coating of glass, such as lenses, optics, and mirrors, is used to enhance optical properties and control the way light is reflected, absorbed, or transmitted. These advanced coatings improve the performance of microscopes, telescopes, cameras, lasers, and display screens.

Optical coatings are thin layers or series of layers applied to optical components to enhance their properties. They are designed to control how light reflects, transmits, or absorbs on the surface of the optical material, improving performance for specific applications like lenses, cameras, microscopes, telescopes, lasers, and display screens.

PVD processes are also used to create anti-reflective coatings for eyeglasses, camera lenses, and flat panel displays. Protective coatings on the glass of watches and phones are also created using PVD coating.

Semiconductor Industry

In the semiconductor industry, Physical Vapor Deposition coating is widely used to deposit thin films of conductive, insulating, or protective materials onto semiconductor wafers. This coating process is essential for creating layers in microchips, memory devices, and various other electronic components.

PVD Vacuum Process

Vacuum technology is essential to create the physical conditions where controlled and precise vaporization of solid materials like titanium, aluminum, or chromium can occur. The vacuum conditions enable the free movement of vaporized atoms or ions from the source material to the target substrate. Coating systems may be based on single vacuum chamber systems or cluster systems with an auxiliary load-lock vacuum system for transferring devices from atmospheric pressure to the processing chamber.

The vacuum process typically starts with turbo pump evacuation to a low base pressure, often below 1E-5 mbar, with the purpose of removing residual gases and creating a controlled gas environment.

The coating process pressure is controlled by applying a gas flow of a specific gas type or a mixture of gas types to create a process pressure typically between 1E-3 and 5E-2 mbar. Different gas types and mixtures are used to create different coating properties, including color.

Vacuum Measurement and Controls

Vacuum measurement and controlling gas pressure are essential in the Physical Vapor Deposition process because they ensure the proper pressure conditions are maintained for high-quality and consistent thin film deposition. The vacuum pressure and gas properties directly affect the deposition rate, coating purity, and overall efficiency of the PVD process.

Traditionally, ionization gauges have been used to verify vacuum base pressure in the range below 1E-4 mbar; however, wide-range MEMS Pirani gauges have extended the usable pressure range by 1-2 decades compared to legacy Pirani and convection gauges.

During coating processing, where different gas mixtures can be present, capacitance diaphragm gauges are utilized to ensure gas-independent measurements.

The VPM-15 TriCAP™ offers a wide-range MEMS Pirani and Capacitance Diaphragm Gauge in one transducer solution.

In metal coating applications, residual particulates can be present, and a protective baffle arrangement is critically important to protect the sensor elements.

Recommended Vacuum Gauges for PVD Coating

Consult our experts today to learn more about our standard and customized vacuum measurement solutions, partnerships, and how we can help you achieve the vacuum measurement precision and control you need in your analytical instrumentation and applications.