Physical vapor deposition

Deposition through physical release and transport of material, including evaporation and sputtering.

Thickness deposited on a feature sidewall or bottom relative to a reference planar surface. Geometry, arrival directions, sticking and surface mobility all influence it.

Exclusion of arriving material from a region by an intervening feature. A broad incident angular distribution can reduce shadowing but does not guarantee conformality.

Deposition from a heated or electron-beam-evaporated source. High-vacuum transport is strongly directional and can give poor recessed-feature coverage.