A rotary vane pump is a positive-displacement pump that consists of vanes mounted to a rotor that rotates inside of a cavity. In some cases these vanes can be variable length and/or tensioned to maintain contact with the walls as the pump rotates.

Common uses in vacuum applications include evacuating refrigerant lines in air conditioners and laboratory freeze dryers. They are used extensively in semiconductor low pressure chemical vapor deposition systems, and vacuum experiments in physics.