I have been further examining material optimization for thermal evaporation to prepare an upcoming poster session at the Society of Vacuum Coaters (SVC) Technical Conference next week. (Session 5 on Tuesday if you’re interested.) The data that was collected proved 3 important things:
1) Most customers are not properly optimizing their evaporation material forms.
2) Mixing round shot and other material forms decreases cost, provides less surface area for oxidation, and improves packing density. It’s a win-win-win!
3) Crucible filling is a perfect (although somewhat obscure) option for most of our customers.
Since crucible filling is a new option for most users, I’ll explain it a bit: we can simply fill/cast your crucibles with an evaporation source (like indium) and send them back to you, or we can make custom inserts to drop into your crucible. When the data was assembled, no other option could compare to crucible filling as the lowest cost, highest density, lowest surface area option. I’m available to help you explore this option, or other evaporation source options: jhisert@indium.com