Directed Vapor Deposition (DVD) is a novel physical vapor deposition tool invented at the University of Virginia (UVA). It offers unique advantages for applying a wide range of coatings onto components. DVD utilizes specially modified electron-beam (e-beam) guns to vaporize materials. The novel gun design allows DVD to operate in a low vacuum environment (~10-3 - 10 Torr) where it is possible to entrain the evaporant in a carrier gas jet for focused, efficient deposition.

The original DVD system (DVD I) was designed and built at the University of Virginia (UVA) from 1994-96 when researchers were posed with a unique challenge. Develop a low cost means for coating extremely small (0.1 mm diameter) ceramic fibers with a thick coating (also ~ 0.1 mm thick) of a complex metal alloy. These researchers found that no existing coating process enabled the process economy and control required to be successful for this particular application. So they invented a new process.

High speed electron beam evaporation was used to efficiently create a dense vapor flux. To efficiently coat the small fibers a supersonic gas jet was employed to tightly focus the vapor to closer match the dimension of the fiber. This enabled much higher deposition rates the previously possible making vapor deposition a suitable means to solving their problem. Further research led to the discovery that by controlling the flow of gas around the fiber a coating could be applied to not only the front of the fiber, but also the sides and back. Intrigued by the novel attributes of this processing approach a broad experimental and modeling research initiative was undertaken resulting in a detailed understanding of the fundamental material processing characteristics of this approach.

Following the extensive study of the first generation concepts, construction of a second generation system (DVD II) was completed in 2000 at UVA. DVD II again combined sophisticated low vacuum electron beam (e-beam) evaporation with vapor transport in a flowing gas stream. However, the new system design enabled more efficient use of the gas jet to further enhance the utilization efficiency and deposition rate of the process.

The new design also allowed the jet to be used to control the degree of intermixing of elements that were simultaneously evaporated from closely neighboring sources. This has allowed the formation precise alloys compositions and enabled combinatorial synthesis approaches to be applied to coating development. When evaporated sequentially, multiple source evaporation has allowed the formation of multi-layer coatings. Also new to this system was ability to plasma activate and attract the gas and vapor atoms to an electrically biased coating surface. The innovative combination of e-beam multi-source evaporation, carrier gas transport, plasma activation, and biasing created in this system opened up new possibilities for the creation of desirable film structures and compositions.