Chemical Vapor Deposition

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a wet chemistry-free process in which one or more volatile molecular (either organic or inorganic) precursors decompose either in the gas phase or at the substrate surface. This delivers radical species to the substrate surface, which allow the deposition of thin (ranging from few nms up to ms in thickness), high-purity, high-performance films. Volatile, stable molecular by-products are also produced, which are then removed by gas flow through the reaction chamber or by a pumping unit. CVD processes are categorized on the basis of the energy source selected for the decomposition of the precursor(s) into radicals. The most common are the application of heating (e.g. in furnaces and hot-wire CVD) and of electric field (e.g. in plasma-enhanced CVD). At PMP we cover the following CVD processes.