In-Situ Gas Monitoring as an Industrial Tool for Rapid Troubleshooting

摘要

Significant amounts of time and money are often lost when attempting to solve common technical problems with industrial large area coating equipment. Many of these problems stem from issues with gases and vapors within the vacuum chamber, including air leaks (including virtual), water leaks, problems with gas delivery, outgassing or hydrocarbon-based contaminants. Detection of these problems is often performed with a Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS). However, many of these problems only manifest when the process is in operation and at pressures above the range of QMS operation. Examples include water leaks when sputtering, contaminated gas lines and outgassing from substrates. Additionally, in large area systems such as float glass lines, it can be highly advantageous to identify problems such as leaks early in the pump-down before the vacuum has reached base pressure. Remote Plasma Emission Spectroscopy (RPEM) is an alternative gas sensing technique that can operate at these higher pressures in the range of 1E(-6)bar to 1 mbar. This paper investigates the use of the RPEM technique for troubleshooting of common problems with industrial large area coating systems and presents examples of how it can be used to rapidly identify and solve these issues.