Introduction

Two electron beam evaporators are located in the MCR. These are capable of evaporating a variety of metals under high vacuum. Along with sputtering, e-beam evaporation is one of the two principal methods of metal deposition available to MCR users. E-beam evaporated metals have good liftoff profiles (or poor step coverage) compared to sputtered metals. Much more of the metal charge is wasted in e-beam evaporation compared to sputtering.

E-beams 1 and 2 are substantially identical with small differences:

1. The controls are configured differently (e-beam 2 is an older model)
2. The vacuum systems work differently (largely automatic on e-beam 1, manual on e-beam 2)
3. E-beam 1 contains an auxilliary thermal evaporator
4. Different materials are allowed and forbidden in the two systems due to process concerns.

Figure 1: E-Beam 1

Figure 2: E-Beam 2