Chemical Vapour Deposition creates thin films of material on a substrate via the use of chemical reactions. Reactive gases are fed into a vacuum chamber and these gases react on a substrate and form a thin film or a powder.

Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition causes the reactive gases to decompose via the electrical discharge. This causes films to deposit at lower temperatures than CVD. The properties of microelectronic circuits deposited via PECVD can thus be improved over CVD.