Application examples | VUV Ionizer: Electrostatic charge removers

Achieves real improvement in production yields and throughput. Use is spreading fast to ever more fields and applications due to its effective ionization.

VUV Ionizers help prevent electrostatic destruction and particle adhesion which contributes to significant improvements in manufacturing process yields and throughput. Besides not inducing "overshoot" that may cause opposite polarity charging, VUV Ionizers offer a clean ionization process that does not need to blow air onto the target and generates no electromagnetic noise. Due to this effective ionization, VUV Ionizers are becoming widely used in countless fields and applications where static electricity and dust particle adhesion are a great concern such as in the manufacture of semiconductors, LCD panels, and organic EL displays.

Semiconductors

The ever-increasing degree of miniaturization, process-shrinking and circuit integration of semiconductor devices makes them more vulnerable to electrostatic charges. This makes it essential to take measures against electrostatic charges to prevent electrostatic destruction as well as device defects caused by foreign particle adhesion.
When used for an electrostatic chuck, the VUV Ionizer eliminates electrostatic charges that occur at de-chucking to make de-chucking safe and reliable. By irradiating vacuum UV light timed so that no wafer is present, the residual electrostatic charges on the electrostatic chuck can be removed without causing UV damage to semiconductor devices. To perform ON / OFF irradiation control at time intervals ranging from a few seconds to several minutes, we recommend using a shutter to interrupt the vacuum UV light.

LCD panel and organic EL displays

Liquid crystal and organic EL displays are becoming larger and thinner so efficient and effective measures must be taken to remove electrostatic charges on larger surface areas. VUV Ionizers help prevent electrostatic destruction and product defects caused by foreign particle adhesion and also improve the yield and throughput in manufacturing processes.
In applications where large glass substrates are treated, installing multiple VUV Ionizers will boost the electrostatic charge removal effect.

Hard disks

Hard disks must provide ever larger capacity and higher data transfer speeds, thus making effective electrostatic charge prevention measures more essential than ever. Eliminating static electricity that accumulates on components such as magnetic heads vulnerable to static electrical charges and disks onto which foreign particles may adhere will effectively boost the yield and throughput in manufacturing processes.

Films

Static electricity is generated on films when repeatedly brought into contact with and peeled away from an object. Large electrostatic charge tend to accumulate in particular on the surface of roll films near the feed and take-up rollers. VUV Ionizers prevent film damage (perforation) caused by electrostatic sparks and defects due to adhering of foreign particles and also help improve conditions in the work environment.
In wide film applications, installing multiple VUV Ionizers will boost the electrostatic charge removal effect.

Electron beam applications

On equipment utilizing electron beams, VUV Ionizers can eliminate charges that occur when a sample is irradiated with an electron beam. For example, in the case of scanning electron microscopes (or SEM) applications, clear images are obtained after pinpoint removal of charges on a sample that were caused by irradiating the sample with an electron beam.

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