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Directed Vapor Deposition: A Leap Forward in
High-Performance Coatings
For many years, vapor deposited coatings have been incorporated in products to provide
functionality that could not be achieved otherwise. Sometimes these coatings act as a
barrier, providing protection from the environment or surface wear resistance. In other
instances, they are active components in an engineered system, converting the sun’s energy
to electricity or storing bits of computer information in magnetic domains.
In many cases, it is only through the use of a coating that engineers can meet their
performance specifications, yet applying coatings can be costly. Directed vapor deposition
dramatically reduces the trade-off between performance and cost and opens the way to
cost-effective production of more sophisticated coatings.
Many applications have already been investigated. These include:
Thermal Barrier Coatings
Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
High Temperature Alignment Layers
High Damping Coatings
Combinatorial Libraries
Medical Devices
Fiber Coating
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