Process for cleaning a substrate using a barrier discharge

US5698039A · kind A · utility

Assignees

• Leybold GmBH · DE
• Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Föderung der Wissenschaften e.V. · US

Inventors

• Ulrich Patz · Gelnhausen, DE
• Michael Scherer · Crimmitschau, DE
• Willi Neff · Kelmis, BE
• Klaus Pochner · Gerolzhofen, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 17, 1996
• Grant date: Dec 16, 1997
• Expiry date: Jan 17, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01J2237/335
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A barrier discharge device (4a, 4b, 4c) installed in a vacuum chamber (1) consists essentially of at least two facing electrodes (20, 22); a dielectric (22) situated between the electrodes (20, 22) and in the immediate proximity of one of these electrodes (20); and a power source (26), which is connected electrically to the electrodes (20, 22). The plasma particles and UV radiation generated during the electrical discharge between the electrodes (20, 22) pass through the electrode (22), which is permeable to UV radiation and plasma particles, and thus emerge from the discharge space. On the surfaces (5a, 5b), the UV radiation induces a photochemical cleaning process, and the impinging plasma particles induce a plasma-chemical cleaning process. The cleaning process is essentially independent of pressure and can be used at pressures of up to 10 bars, which means that the cleaning process can be operated in particular during the time in which the vacuum chamber (1) is being pumped out.