Coil portion 130 is a coil of an electromagnet that is disposed within PVD chamber 100 and outside of processing region 105. According to various embodiments, during a PVD process in PVD chamber 100, direct current (DC) power is applied to coil portion 130 to generate a magnetic field (not shown) that extends into processing region 105. As a result, the distribution and density of plasma in processing region 105 can be altered, thereby modifying the rate of deposition onto the surface of substrate 101. Specifically, because the magnetic field generated by coil portion 130 is most intense near the periphery of processing region 105 and of substrate 101, the biggest changes to deposition rate caused by the magnetic field occur near the circumference of substrate 101. Thus, center-to-edge uniformity issues of a film deposited on substrate 101 can be addressed by altering the intensity of the magnetic field generated by coil portion 130 by changing the current flowing therethrough.