Physical vapour deposition 

Our physical vapour deposition processes include the following technologies: 

Evaporation process / PVD coating

• Electron beam evaporation for metals and their compounds
• Electron beam evaporation with ion support
• Sputtering (sputter deposition, cathode sputtering), e.g., magnetron sputtering (MS)
• Thermal evaporation for metals and their compounds with melting points up to approx. 1800°C
   

Various materials can be vaporised to condense as a layer on a substrate: numerous metals, oxides, fluorides, sulphides, and semiconductors. Reactive gases such as oxygen (O2) or nitrogen (N2) can be added to oxidize or nitride metals or semiconductors during deposition. The substrates are usually rotated at a constant speed during the coating process. The thickness of the individual layers produced using the PVD process is around 100 nanometres (nm). Typically, multiple layers are applied, resulting in total layer thicknesses up to several tens of micrometres (µm).

The adhesive strength, density, and hardness of the applied layers can be significantly increased by heating and/or bombarding the substrates with ions. We can precisely control properties such as reflection, transmission, and other factors in various wavelength ranges and at different angles of incidence using optical coatings. The resulting layers are used in optics, the automotive industry, sensor technology, as well as in medical and electrical engineering.