Thin Film Deposition
Thin Film Deposition
Thin film deposition is the process of creating and depositing thin film coatings onto a substrate material. We represent comapnies such as Advanced Energy, Gencoa, and Telemark. These coatings can be made of many different materials, from metals to oxides to compounds. Thin film coatings also have many different characteristics which are leveraged to alter or improve some element of the substrate performance. For example, some are transparent; some are very durable and scratch-resistant; and some increase or decrease the conductivity of electricity or transmission of signals.
Thin film deposition is an important manufacturing step in the production of many opto-electronic, solid state and medical devices and products, including consumer electronics, semiconductor lasers, fiber lasers, LED displays, optical filters, compound semiconductors, precision optics, microscopy & microanalysis sample slides, and medical implants. There are a few different technologies and methods that can be used to apply thin film coatings, and an array of tools and equipment that can be used to streamline or enhance the thin film deposition process.
There is no one-size-fits-all, perfect thin film deposition system or method. Your technique and configuration of choice depends on the performance and production requirements that are unique to your application.
Types of Thin Film Deposition Equipment
Plasma Power Sources
Plasma power supplies are direct current (DC) and radio frequency (RF) devices used in plasma generation equipment for applications such as sputtering, plasma etching, physical vapor deposition (PVD) coating, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) coating.
Magnetron Sputtering
Rectangular and rotatable magnetrons offering a large choice of magnetic options are complemented by the range of ion sources for pre-cleaning, and process tools such as the powerful Speedflo process controller and Optix sensor.
Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Sources
These sources are working gas independent, reliable and maintenance poor. This makes them perfectly suited to full-fill your process and application needs. The Standard ICP source delivers a high ion current (ICD) at constantly low ion energies (IE) which can be easily controlled and adjusted if needed.
Electron Beam Sources
The strict attention to magnetic design improves material usage and ensures high film repeatability. 270⁰ beam deflection design is used on all Telemark sources and is state-of-the-art in ebeam technology. This ensures long filament life and longer run times before servicing.
Ion Beam Sources
The source design is extremely low maintenance with no replaceable internal components. The ion beam source line is capable of either mixed gas or pure oxygen operation, allowing for deposition of metal oxide films of the highest index and lowest stress. Patented Pulsed Mode for ion assisted fluorides provides fully compacted, damage free results not achievable with any other ion source.
