Understand how the vacuum coating process is realized

Vacuum coating is a process used to manufacture high-quality thin-film materials. It produces thin films by thermally evaporating or sputtering organic or inorganic materials onto the surface of a substrate under vacuum conditions. This article will introduce the implementation of vacuum coating in detail.

The vacuum coating process includes the following steps:

1. Choose the right substrate and material

Choosing the right substrate and material is the first step in vacuum coating. The substrate can be glass, plastic, metal or other nanomaterials. Materials can be organic or inorganic, such as metals, semiconductors, oxides or nitrides.

2. Load the vacuum coating system

The second step is to load the substrate and materials into the vacuum coating system. The vacuum coating system includes a vacuum chamber, a metal evaporator, a sputter and a control system. The vacuum chamber is a closed space used to maintain a vacuum environment, metal evaporators and sputters are devices used to evaporate or sputter materials onto substrates, and the control system is used to monitor and adjust the vacuum environment and material evaporation or sputtering speed.

3. Vacuum

After loading the material and substrate, the vacuum chamber should be evacuated. Vacuuming is a very important step, because maintaining a low pressure and high purity environment can guarantee the quality of the membrane. The vacuum environment is usually below 10^-6 mbar to exclude gas molecules and other pollutants.

4. Material evaporation or sputtering

When the vacuum environment reaches the desired pressure, the material can be evaporated or sputtered onto the substrate. There are two methods of material evaporation: thermal evaporation and electron beam evaporation. Sputtering also has two methods: magnetron sputtering and arc sputtering. Whichever method is used, the material evaporation or sputtering rate and film thickness need to be controlled.

5. Make multilayer film

Once a single-layer membrane has been fabricated, multiple layers can be stacked together to form a composite. Different materials and deposition processes can be used, such as alternating deposition, multi-gun material co-deposition, and zoned deposition.

6. Test membrane quality

The final step is to test the quality of the membrane. Tests can include thickness, physical properties, optical properties and electrical properties, among others. Determine whether the membrane material meets the requirements according to the test results.

In short, vacuum coating technology is a method to achieve high-quality thin films. It needs to select the appropriate substrate and material, load the vacuum coating system, vacuumize, material evaporate or sputter, make multi-layer film and test the film quality. Vacuum coating technology has been widely used in electronics, optics, medical and energy fields.