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Directed Vapor Deposition: Designed from the Start to Expand Your Coating Options
The need for high-performance coatings in recent years has grown considerably as the need
to compensate for the limitations of commonly available bulk materials has become more
insistent. Directed vapor deposition is the only system capable of meeting highly demanding
requirements for coating composition and morphology, while reducing overall costs.
The advantages that directed vapor deposition offers over existing technology include:
Economical Process. In conventional physical vapor deposition systems, the flux generated by
the electron-beam gun expands as it moves away from the source. As a result, virtually all the
vaporized material condenses on the walls of the vacuum chamber and not on the component to be
coated. With directed vapor deposition, the supersonic gas jet can be used to tailor the spread
of the vapor flux to the size of the substrate. This translates into highly efficient use of
materials and deposition rates that can be 15 times as high as physical vapor deposition.
Non-Line-of-Sight Deposition. When moderate chamber pressures are employed, the gas jet can
carry the vapor across regions of the substrate that are not facing the evaporation source.
This effect is impossible to duplicate in a single pass using conventional vapor deposition
technologies.
Superior Control of Composition and Morphology. By incorporating multisource evaporation
and hollow cathode plasma activation, the composition and morphology of a coating can be
controlled. This means that dense crystalline coatings can be deposited that incorporate
multiple layers of different materials as well as compositions and morphologies that are
graduated across a surface.
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