AVS 49th International Symposium
    Plasma Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session PS-TuP

Paper PS-TuP33
Surface Cleaning of Organic Materials on Metal by Atmospheric Pressure Plasma

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 5:30 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B2

Session: Plasma Applications
Presenter: C.H. Yi, SungKyunKwan University, Korea
Authors: C.H. Yi, SungKyunKwan University, Korea
Y.H. Lee, SungKyunKwan University, Korea
E.S. Choi, LG-PRC
H.C. Woo, Korea Vacuum Tech.
G.Y. Yeom, SungKyunKwan University, Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
Due to the various advantages of the use of atmospheric pressure, recent studies on the surface cleaning of organic materials are concentrated on the atmospheric pressure plasmas instead of low pressure plasmas. In this study, atmospheric pressure plasmas were generated using a capillary dielectric covered electrode and AC power supply(3-15kV) of low frequency to clean organic materials on metal surfaces such as Ag and Cu and the effects of process conditions and cleaning gases on the cleaning properties have been investigated. As the cleaning gases, He and O@sub2@ were used as the ignition gas and cleaning gas, respectively. In addition to these gases, N@sub2@, Ar, and SF@sub6@ were added to improve the effect of surface treatment. The small addition of O@sub2@ to He increased the surface cleaning rate due to the increase of oxygen radicals in the plasmas, however, the further addition of oxygen decreased the surface cleaning rate possibly due to the decrease of plasma density by the formation of oxygen negative ions between oxygen molecules and electrons in the plasma. The additional mixture of N@sub2@ to O@sub2@/He further increased the surface cleaning possibly due to the increased chemical reaction with surface contaminants resulting in the increased volatilization and removal from the surface. Surface characteristics after the plasma treatment were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and showed the decrease of carbon contaminants on the metal surface by the atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. Decrease of contact angles of water on the plasma cleaned surface was also observed.