Fraunhofer Institute for Electron Beam
and Plasma Technology FEP
Fraunhofer Institute for Electron Beam
and Plasma Technology FEP

VERSA

Pilot plant for plasma-activated electron beam vapor deposition

Technologies

Spotless arc discharge during electron beam vapor deposition (SAD process)
Hollow cathode arc discharge (HAD process)

Coating

High-rate electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD):

  • Plasma-activated high-rate deposition
    • Spotless arc-activated deposition process (SAD process)
    • Hollow cathode arc-activated deposition process (HAD process)
  • Reactive depositions
  • Deposition of metals, alloys, and compounds
  • Pulsed magnetron sputtering
  • Plasma-enhanced physical vapor deposition (PECVD)

Pre-treatment

  • Pre-heating of the substrates
  • Plasma-based pre-treatment
  • Magnetron sputtering of intermediate layers

Technical specifications

Electron beam gun up to 300 kW / 45 kV
Substrate dimensions up to 120 mm × 200 mm (metal, glass, wafers, etc.)
Substrate speed 1 cm/s ... 1 m/s
Substrate pre-treatment Handling under inert gas environment possible by using a glovebox
Radiative heater max. 6 kW
Sputter etcher max. 6 kW
DC magnetron max. 8 kW
Plasma activation Spotless arc-activated deposition process (SAD process)
Hollow cathode arc-activated deposition process (HAD process)
2000 A – arc power supply
Evaporation crucibles Water-cooled copper crucibles
Hot ceramic crucibles
In-situ measurement systems Coating rates
Optical emission measurements
Substrate temperature
Evaporation rates
Power balance

Already realized layer materials

  • Aluminum and aluminum alloys
  • Aluminum oxide
  • Amorphous carbon
  • Barium oxide
  • Bronze
  • Chromium / nickel-chromium / chromium nitrite
  • Copper and copper alloys
  • Copper oxide
  • Indium tin oxide
  • Iron
  • Iron chromium nickel alloys
  • Lead
  • Lithium phosphate / lithium iron phosphate
  • Lithium titanate
  • Magnesium / magnesium oxide
  • Molybdenum
  • Nickel
  • Silicon / silicon oxide
  • Silver
  • Tantalum
  • Tin
  • Titanium / titanium carbide / titanium nitrite / titanium oxide
  • Tungsten / tungsten carbide
  • Yttrium
  • Yttrium barium copper oxide
  • Yttrium-stabilized zirconium oxide
  • Zirconium / zirconium oxide
Schematic representation of the VERSA

Our offer

  • Technology and process development, in particular new plasma-based processes featuring high-rate vapor deposition and substrate pre-treatment
  • Development of new PVD systems of layers
  • Basic research on plasma-activated vapor deposition
  • Feasibility studies
  • Sampling of coatings

Further information