PLASUS has extended its well known EMICON series for plasma monitoring and process control with a cutting edge development for HIPIMS and pulsed plasma applications. The EMICON FS system is finally ready for market rollout.
For Fast Spectroscopic mesurements, the developers at PLASUS have achieved to reduce the integration time of the spectral data acquistion considerably to values well below the pulse length of typical HIPIMS processes.
This results in an unprecedented time resolution of the spectral data which enables a deeper insight in the evolution of plasma composition during the pulse. For example, the following data shows how the concentration of argon builds up almost immediately after the voltage onset whereas the metallic species follow by a delay of 20 µs . Note that there is no difference between the time behavior of the neutral Ti and the ionic Ti+.
So far, such time resolution has been available only with spectroscopic high-end equipment. In contrast to those tools the EMICON FS system allows continuous monitoring with 24/7 operation. The recording below shows the pulse sequence of the transition of a HIPIMS process from the reactive mode to the metallic mode. Valuable process details can be revealed not only in R&D applications but also in production machines.
Just like all other EMICON systems the EMICON FS system can be equipped with a wide range of industrial interfaces for integration in existing production machines. Previously unreachable sophisticated process control schemes such as synchronized substrate biasing in real-time can now be realized at a very reasonable price tag.
