SBIR Phase I: Low-Pressure Microplasma Gas Analyzer

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate the feasibility of a gas analyzer based on microplasma emission. Current technologies capable of identifying and quantifying gas partial pressures are not well suited to operation in the 1 mTorr to 1 Torr pressure regime typically used in semiconductor and other vacuum processing. The gas analyzer proposed here would vastly improve the quality of process diagnostics and control, and allow for cost effective real time control in a variety of industries. This project will investigate scaling of microplasma sources to low pressures and small dimensions as well as optical diagnostics of these novel plasma. A gas analysis system capable of operation at <10mTorr, <ppm detection limit, power consumption <5 W, and occupying a volume of <2000 cm3 will be demonstrated. The gas analyzer will immediately be applied in semiconductor manufacturing where it will be used for wafer qualification, system fingerprinting, process diagnostics and control, and as a monitor of system emissions. Spin-offs into other industries which utilize vacuum processing (data storage, industrial coating, etc) as well as into scientific apparatus can be expected.