Erik J. Cox, Victor Bellido-Gonzalez, Joseph Brindley, Gencoa Ltd, Liverpool, United Kingdom
This talk will outline the principles of remote plasma optical emission spectroscopy and demonstrate its capabilities within various industry sectors.
Gencoa’s ‘Optix’ uses a remote plasma spectroscopy concept which generates a small plasma within the sensor head. A built-in spectrometer analyses the plasma, automatically interpreting the light spectrum to provide quantitative measurement of the presence and concentration of gas within the vacuum.
The Optix spectral information and sophisticated back-end software creates a range of uses for a wide range of applications, including contaminating processes involving hydrocarbons, solvents and long-chain polymers.
The Optix can be applied to many applications and processes including PVD, ALD, Leak detection, heat treatment, hot isostatic pressing and process gas analysis. These will be briefly discussed.
The sensor has several distinct advantages over conventional quadrupole mass spectrometers which will also be considered, including operation over a wide pressure range – no requirement for differential pumping; No filaments and low maintenance; Direct monitoring of the vacuum with msec response time; Significantly less expensive than RGA and differential pump combination.
Gencoa has utilised the technique to develop a dedicated leak detector which does not use helium. This is targeted at industry sectors where leak rates of 1 x 10-7 mbar.l/s (equivalent helium leak rate) are sufficient as a pass/fail criterion.