PHYSICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION,

The purpose of this report is to describe the equipment and state-of-the-art of processes used in physical vapor deposition PVD, the properties and applications of articles coated by PVD, and methods of testing coated products. PVD, which includes the well known vacuum metallizing, is the most frequently used means for depositing coatings from the vapor phase. A major characteristic of PVD is that the coating material is identical with the source material. The processes of PVD may be grouped into three general classes, according to the manner in which the source material is vaporized 1 those that utilize sublimation or evaporation this group includes vacuum metallizing, 2 sputtering, and 3 ion plating.