PVD is the abbreviation of Physical vapor deposition. Physical vapor deposition describes a variety of vacuum deposition methods which  can be widely used to produce thin films and coatings on different substrate like plastic, glass, metal, ceramic, etc. PVD is characterized by a process in which the material goes from a condensed phase to a vapor phase and then back to a thin film condensed phase. The most common PVD processes arc ion, sputtering, E-beam and evaporation. PVD is used in the manufacture of items which require thin films for mechanical, optical, chemical or electronic functions.

Common industrial coatings applied by PVD are pure metal films like Cu, Al, Cr, Au, Ni, and compound films like TiN, TiC, TiCN, TiAlN, ZrN, CrN, CrSiN, ZrTiCN, TiAlCN, ZrC, TiALN, DLC, etc.

Common PVD vacuum coaters:

Cathodic Arc Ion PVD vacuum coating machine: In which a high-power electric arc discharged at the target (source) material blasts away some into highly ionized vapor to be deposited onto the workpiece.

Electron beam PVD vacuum coating machine: In which the material to be deposited is heated to a high vapor pressure by electron bombardment in "high" vacuum and is transported by diffusion to be deposited by condensation on the (cooler) workpiece.

Evaporation PVD vacuum coating machine: In which the material to be deposited is heated to a high vapor pressure by electrical resistance heating in "high" vacuum.

Magnetron Sputtering PVD vacuum coating machine: In which a glow plasma discharge (usually localized around the "target" by a magnet) bombards the material sputtering some away as a vapor for subsequent deposition.

Pulsed electron PVD vacuum coating machine: In which a highly energetic pulsed electron beam ablates material from the target generating a plasma stream under nonequilibrium conditions.