Electron Beam Evaporation Systems

An electron beam evaporator heats source material in a water-cooled crucible with a focused beam of electrons until it evaporates. The vapour travels in straight lines to the substrate and condenses as a thin film. E-beam evaporation reaches high deposition rates on metals and dielectrics, and its directional deposition front suits lift-off patterning. A multi-pocket gun switches between materials in one run, so multilayer optical coatings build without breaking vacuum. Intlvac Thin Film builds e-beam evaporation systems from compact R&D tools to pilot and optical coating platforms, and SiSTEM is Intlvac’s partner for the UK, Ireland and most of Europe.

What to compare

• Gun and pockets: how many materials you need in one run, and the crucible sizes
• Ion assist: an ion source densifies films as they grow, which matters for optical and barrier coatings
• Fixturing: a flat plate planetary, a flip fixture planetary, a planetary dome or a rotating hub, chosen for uniformity across the parts you coat
• Heating and cooling: substrate heating for dense films, or cooled stages for delicate materials
• Monitoring: quartz crystal rate control, plus optical monitoring for interference coatings
• Load lock: for shorter cycles and a cleaner main chamber

Intlvac e-beam evaporation systems

• Nanochrome I: an R&D and pilot system with a 4- or 6-pocket e-beam gun, a water-cooled stage with automatic angle control, and 5×10^-8 Torr ultimate pressure. It can also run magnetron sputtering and ion beam etching in the same pump-down.
• Nanochrome II, evaporation configuration: a vertical clamshell chamber for e-beam and thermal evaporation with ion assist. It takes a choice of planetary fixturing, with substrate heating options up to 800°C.
• Nanochrome Pico: a compact R&D platform in a 16″ D-shaped chamber, with up to two e-beam sources alongside thermal, Knudsen cell and magnetron sources. Lift-off uses the extended-height chamber.
• Nanochrome IV UV VIS: built for complex optical filters by e-beam evaporation with ion assist.

There’s more on the other deposition methods on our thin film deposition page.

Working with SiSTEM

SiSTEM is Intlvac’s partner for the UK, Ireland and most of Europe. We scope your system with you and Intlvac’s engineers, and stay your local contact through quotation, installation and after-sales. Tell us the materials, film stack and substrate sizes, and we’ll take it to Intlvac.