REMOTE NON-CONTACT HIGH-TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT

METALORGANIC CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION (MOCVD) REACTIONS, USED EXTENSIVELY FOR PRODUCTION OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES, CANNOT BE ACCURATELY CONTROLLED WITH EXISTING THERMOMETRIC TECHNIQUES. A NON-INVASIVE METHOD OF PRECISELY SENSING SURFACE TEMPERATURE IN THE RANGE 600 TO 1200 DEGREES CENTIGRADE IS ACUTELY NEEDED TO SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF "EXPERT" MOCVD SYSTEMS. IN PHASE I, SPIRE PROPOSES TO STUDYA WIRELESS SYSTEM BASED UPON REMOTE DETECTION OF THE TEMPERATURE DEPENDENT GAMMA RAY FLUX FROM TRACE RADIONUCLIDES BURIED IN THE HEATED SURFACE. THE PROPOSED APPROACH WILL INDUCE MINUTE QUANTITIES OF NEAR-SURFACE GAMMAACTIVITY AT THE SITE TO BE MONITORED, THEN REMOTELY SENSE DECREASES IN PHOTON FLUX DUE TO EVAPORATION. MULTI-POINT MEASUREMENTS YIELDING TEMPERATURE UNIFORMITY SHOULD BE FEASIBLE. AN EXTRAPOLATION OF WEAR MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTATION SOLD COMMERCIALLY BY SPIRE, THIS SYSTEM COULD BE USED NOT ONLY IN MOCVD CONTROL, BUT ALSO FOR MONITORING VACUUM PROCESSES, JET ENGINES, ROCKET NOZZLES AND ENGINES, AND ROTATING COMPONENTS.