Vacuum Plasma FAQs

• Vacuum Pump: Dry Scroll (Oilless, for any gas and in need of clean process), Two Stage Rotary Vane Pump (Oil Type, Fomblin Oil: Suitable for all gases OR Mineral/Hydrocarbon Oil: Only suitable for Inert Gases), Mechanical Booster in combination with Rotary Vane Pump or Screw Pump
• Plasma Generator: LF (40kHz, Low Frequency) or RF (13.56MHz, Radio Frequency) comes with a Manual Matching Network or Automatic Matching Network.
• Vacuum Chamber: The chamber is mostly constructed of Stainless Steel (SS) with a grade specified by the customer or standard as 304L (other materials like aluminium etc. on request). If the ultra-clean process is required then the chamber is constructed of Quartz Glass with a Dry Pump (Oilless).
• Electrode: Low-Pressure Plasma Cleaner or Vacuum Plasma has multiple types of electrode structure which highly depends on the part, its application, and the end result that is to be derived. Types can be Single or Multi-tier power-ground set or RIE or Power-Floating etc.
• Gas: The gas that is to be purged inside the chamber which is in a vacuum depends on the material. The plasma treatment mainly involves the use of Oxygen, Argon, Hydrogen, Air, and CF4. For general plasma cleaning purposes, Air itself can get the job done.

• The Vacuum Chamber where the parts are loaded is evacuated to a pressure in the 10^-2 range with the help of a vacuum pump.
• After the base pressure is achieved the gas is continuously injected or purged into the vacuum chamber increasing the pressure which will be between 0.1 mbar to 1 mbar.
• The above is the desired pressure for a Capacitively Coupled Plasma (CCP) system to generate an optimum level of plasma in order to perform plasma treatment on the loaded material into the vacuum chamber. Depending upon the material and the application a desired plasma time is been decided which is generally between 1 to 30 minutes.
• After the plasma treatment is performed the vacuum chamber is again brought back to the atmospheric pressure in order to remove the plasma treated material.

• Treatment can be performed on complex designed parts.
• Electronic devices like PCBs, LED Panels, etc can also be plasma treated due to low temperatures and other methods to generate plasma.
• Plasma treatment on powders can also be performed.
• Inside treatment is also possible whether say syringes, tubes, pipette tips, microwell, septa cap, ink feed, etc.
• Environmental friendly process.
• Consumption of gas is very less which is generally between 10 to 200 ml/min depending upon the chamber.

• Metals
• Plastics or Polymers
• Elastomers
• Textiles
• Polymers combined with different materials

This completely depends upon the production output to be derived which is conveyed by the customer. As the plasma process requires time between 1 to 30 minutes and the size of the material that is to be plasma treated the volume of the chamber is thoroughly calculated.

Each and every process is different from the other. Depending upon the material to be plasma treated the gas or gas mixture has to be used, either the client can tell the gas which is to be used along with plasma, or Eltech depending upon the application can provide a suitable solution.

• Argon
• Oxygen
• Air
• Hydrogen
• Nitrogen
• Flour Gas

The part which is exposed to the plasma is going to be treated. The surface can be masked if the plasma treatment is to be avoided on that particular surface.

The Low-Pressure Plasma or Vacuum Plasma System is an extremely environmentally friendly technique to increase or decrease the surface energy of any material. With the help of Eltech’s PLC program and techniques, the last residue of any gas inside the chamber is pushed out and trapped inside a special exhaust filter.