[Classified by vacuum level]

Low/medium vacuum (10⁵–10⁻¹ Pa): Used for auxiliary processes such as material handling and preliminary exhaust.

High vacuum (10⁻¹ to 10⁻⁵ Pa): The operational range for mainstream thin-film deposition and etching processes. In 2024, the global market size for semiconductor high-vacuum equipment reached approximately $5.22 billion.

Ultra-high vacuum (10⁻⁵ to 10⁻⁹ Pa): Used in processes requiring extremely high purity, such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

Ultra-high vacuum (<10⁻⁹ Pa): Used for cutting-edge scientific research and the fabrication of specialized devices.

[Classified by material type]

 Metallized films: such as barrier layers (Ta/TaN) in copper interconnects, aluminum electrodes, etc.

Dielectric films: such as SiO₂, Si₃N₄, and high-k materials (e.g., HfO₂), used as gate dielectrics and interlayer insulators.

Rigid protective coatings, such as TiN, TiAlN, and CrN, are not only used for tool coatings but also widely applied for wear protection in critical components of semiconductor equipment.

o [Classification by deposition technique]

o Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD): Transfers the source material onto the substrate using physical methods such as thermal evaporation or sputtering. Typical techniques include vacuum evaporation deposition, sputtering deposition, and vacuum ion deposition.

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o Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD): A process that deposits solid thin films on substrate surfaces through gaseous chemical reactions. Low-pressure CVD (LPCVD) and plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) are the predominant techniques.

o Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD): A refined variant of CVD that enables layer-by-layer growth of single atomic layers through alternating precursor pulses, making it the preferred method for depositing High-k dielectric layers in processes below 3 nm.