E-beam evaporation

E-beam evaporation is widely used in large scale produktion, e.g. for metallizations, optical components or plasma displays.

Learn more here.

Review article on e-beam evaporation

In its issue 3/2008 the technology magazine Vacuum International has dedicated a review article to the novel E-vaporator e-beam sources.

Read this article here.

Smart E-vaporator series –
E-beam sources and evaporators

Electron beams provide the unique opportunity for an easy-to-control transmission of energy for all kinds of vacuum heating applications.

THEVA’s Smart E-vaporator series constitutes a new class of handy e-beam sources opening up various application windows and addressing the need for high flexibility and long service life.

THEVA has designed a novel concept for e-beam heating in the kilowatt range, providing a versatile tool for continuous production.

The core idea is the spatial separation between e-beam generation and target area. The resulting independence gives a lot of design freedom in arranging components. The remote location of the e-beam source reduces contamination of the high voltage components and increases reliability.

The fast dynamics of the e-beam control allows rapid sweeping (up to 400 Hz),an accurate definition of the heated area, as well as synchronization of the beam with other work cycles.

Within its focus the e-beam can rapidly generate extremely high temperatures. Short cycle time and long life allow high throughput and automation, decreasing the unit costs of production.

Two concepts – one goal: long term operation

Crucible heating and wire feeding

E-beam heated crucibles are ideal for long term metal deposition.In this compact deposition arrangement an e-beam is heating a crucible from the bottom resulting in smooth, high rate evaporation and extremely low heat load on the substrate.

The wire feeding system enables long term - high throughput operation of the compact crucible source. It supplies kilometers of metal wire from a payout spool and the self-regulating design of the crucible guarantees continuous operation without additional rate control. For easy retrofit, THEVA has combined the wire feeding system with a wire transfer into the vacuum. Hence, this component plus material storage can be placed outside and allows easy access.

The pierce e-gun offers complete design freedom

The pierce e-gun generates an e-beam, which can be accurately shaped, controlled, and swept in milliseconds by the integrated electron optics. Thus, kilowatts of power can be transmitted precisely to the desired object.

The span of applications is ranging from surfaces heating for cleaning, desorption and hardening, to melting of ingots, vacuum soldering and evaporation. The beam can produce thousands of degrees of temperature – sufficient to vaporizing practically everything.

Differential pumping even allows operation in reactive gas ambient.

The separation of target and e-beam source yields a lot of design freedom.

Material feeding schemes supplying granulate or rods can be easily implemented even for unusual deposition geometries. In this arrangement even complex, multi-component materials have been successfully deposited by continuous flash evaporation.