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Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual
Revision: B3, Year 2020
3.
User should turn off the power to the plasma cleaner if the plasma cleaner is idle for more than
1 hour.
8.9 How to reduce the pumping down time and achieve better vacuum
level?
1.
To reduce pumping down time and achieve better vacuum level, please keep the moisture out
of the plasma cleaner sample chamber and the hose/bellow between the plasma cleaner
2.
Vent the sample chamber with clean dry air (CDA) or dry nitrogen/argon if available.
3.
Make sure the vacuum pump has an inlet valve. If the vacuum pump has an inlet pump, it will be
able to keep the vacuum hose between the plasma cleaner and the pump under the vacuum
condition even if the power to the vacuum pump is turned off.
4.
Use 1-2 meter stainless steel bellow instead of rubber hose.
5.
Keep the plasma chamber under vacuum when it is in the idle state by clicking the “finish up”
button after each use. It will pump down the plasma sample chamber and place system in the
idle state.
When the system is first installed, the sample chamber in the plasma
cleaner, the vacuum hose and the vacuum pump might be contaminated
with water moisture. It may take a long time to pump down the chamber
for the first time. If the user runs a high-power immersion/direct plasma
cleaning recipe for more than 10 minutes, it will remove the moisture in
the vacuum system faster. If the sample is too sensitive to oxidation, such
as the silver or other reactive metal samples, please remove the water and
other impurity in the process gas.
To make surface hydrophilic, it’s actually very important to have some
level of water moisture inside the plasma chamber to form the hydroxyl
functional group. If the chamber is too dry, the user may need to
intentionally introduce some level of moisture into the chamber, for
examples, by wiping the chamber with a moisted wipe.
