In a good number of occasions, the process for obtaining a layer under study conveniently patterned, isolated, ready to be transferred, or to be contacted needs of ancillary materials that, despite not being the object of the scientific interest, are of crucial importance as they not only make possible the preparation and obtention of the main layers, but also can condition some of their basic properties.

This set of techniques contains the required suite of deposition processes for such ancillary materials. Those processes include Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) and Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) of thin films such as silicon nitride, silicon oxide, polysilicon that can be used as etching masks, implantation and diffusion barriers, dielectric barriers, spacers or conductive layers. Also thin metal layers deposited by evaporation or sputtering are available.