Scribd
Upload
309 views3 pages

Physical Vapour Deposition

Physical vapour deposition (PVD) is a coating technique that involves vaporizing a material and depositing it as a thin film on a substrate. The process involves evaporating material from a target using bombardment, transporting the vaporized atoms, and depositing a thin film on the substrate. PVD coatings are used to improve properties like hardness, wear resistance, and oxidation resistance in applications such as aerospace components, automotive parts, medical devices, and cutting tools. While PVD offers advantages like depositing materials with improved properties, it also has disadvantages such as being a line-of-sight technique and having a slow deposition rate.

Uploaded by

tessaro1823
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
309 views3 pages

Physical Vapour Deposition

Physical vapour deposition (PVD) is a coating technique that involves vaporizing a material and depositing it as a thin film on a substrate. The process involves evaporating material from a target using bombardment, transporting the vaporized atoms, and depositing a thin film on the substrate. PVD coatings are used to improve properties like hardness, wear resistance, and oxidation resistance in applications such as aerospace components, automotive parts, medical devices, and cutting tools. While PVD offers advantages like depositing materials with improved properties, it also has disadvantages such as being a line-of-sight technique and having a slow deposition rate.

Uploaded by

tessaro1823
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) An Introduction

Topics Covered Background How Does Physical Vapour Deposition Work? Evaporation Transport Reaction Deposition What are PVD Coatings Used For? Advantages of the Physical Vapour Deposition Process Disadvantages of the Physical Vapour Deposition Process Applications Background Physical vapour deposition (PVD) is fundamentally a vaporisation coating technique, involving transfer of material on an atomic level. It is an alternative process to electroplating The process is similar to chemical vapour deposition (CVD) except that the raw materials/precursors, i.e. the material that is going to be deposited starts out in solid form, whereas in CVD, the precursors are introduced to the reaction chamber in the gaseous state. It incorporates processes such as sputter coating and pulsed laser deposition (PLD). How Does Physical Vapour Deposition Work? PVD processes are carried out under vacuum conditions. The process involved four steps: Evaporation

Transportation Reaction Deposition

Evaporation During this stage, a target, consisting of the material to be deposited is bombarded by a high ebergy source suchg as a beam of electrons or ions. This dislodges atoms from the surface of the target, vaporising them. Transport This process simply consists of the movement of vaporised atoms from the target to the substrate to be coated and will generally be a straight line affair. Reaction In some cases coatings will consist of metal oxides, nitrides, carbides and other such materials. In these cases, the target will consist of the metal. The atoms of metal will then react with the appropriate gas during the transport stage. For the above examples, the reactive gases may be oxygen, nitrogen and methane. In instances where the coating consists of the target material alone, this step would not be part of the process. Deposition This is the process of coating build up on the substrate surface. Depeding on the actual process, some reactions between target materials and the reactive gases may also take place at the substrate surface simultaneously with the deposition process. What are PVD Coatings Used For? PVD coatings are deposited for numerous reasons. Some of the main ones are: Improved hardness and wear resistance Reduced friction Improved oxidation resistance

The use of such coatings is aimed at improving efficiency through improved performance and longer component life. They may also allow coated components to operate in environments that the uncoated component would not otherwise have been able to perform.

Advantages of the Physical Vapour Deposition Process Materials can be deposited with improved properties compared to the substrate material Almost any type of inorganic material can be used as well as some kinds of organic materials The process is more environmentally friendly than processes such as electroplating Disadvantages of the Physical Vapour Deposition Process It is a line of sight technique meaning that it is extremely difficult to coat undercuts and similar surface features High capital cost

Some processes operate at high vacuums and temperatures requiring skilled operators Processes requiring large amounts of heat require appropriate cooling systems The rate of coating deposition is usually quite slow

Applications As mentioned previously, PVD coatings are generally used to improve hardness, wear resistance and oxidation resistance. Thus, such coatings use in a wide range of applications such as: Aerospace Automotive Surgical/Medical Dies and moulds for all manner of material processing Cutting tools Fire arms

Source: AZoM.com

You might also like