Evaporation is another type of physical vapor deposition (PVD) used for thin film depositions. In evaporation, the solid material is converted into vapor phase by applying heat to the source material, causing it to undergo evaporation. The evaporation is a ‘line-of-sight’ deposition technology, which means only surface facing the source will be coated due to directional deposition effect. There are two types of evaporation methods: e-beam and thermal. In the e-beam evaporation the heat transfer is given by an electron beam focused on the material to be melted; while thermal evaporation uses a resistive heat source to evaporate a solid material. The following tables list the film availability for each tool.

Evaporation Tools for Various Metal/Dielectric Deposition Processes