WHAT IS ELECTRON BEAM EVAPORATION?

Electron beam deposition (e-beam deposition), is a physical vapour deposition process similar to thermal evaporation. A source material is heated above its boiling/sublimation temperature and evaporated to form a film on the surfaces that the atom flux impinges in a low-pressure environment. The evaporated material has good directionality which reduces chance of sidewall coverage and makes this method ideal for lift-off processes. A noticeable advantage of e-beam evaporation over thermal evaporation is the possibility to add a larger amount of energy into the source material. This yields a higher density film with increased adhesion to the substrate. Because the electron beam only heats the source material and not the entire crucible, a lower degree of contamination from the crucible will be present than in the case of thermal evaporation. By using a multiple crucible E-beam gun, several different materials can be deposited without breaking the vacuum. With the source material placed in the crucible, a filament below the crucible is heated. By applying a large voltage, electrons are drawn from the filament and focused as a beam on the source material by several bending magnets. The beam is swept across the surface of the source material to heat all the material. For your lift off processes, consider choosing our Flextura Evaporator Module, either as a stand alone module, or in combination with a Flextura Cluster for high volume production.