Ion cleaning of silicone-based contaminants

Author

Froechtenigt, J.F. ; Ress, E.B.

Author_Institution

Martin Marietta, Denver, CO, USA

fYear

1989

fDate

6-11 Aug 1989

Firstpage

393

Abstract

The use of low-energy (25-100 eV) ions to remove silicone-based polymer films from spacecraft operational and optical surfaces by controlled sputtering to avoid damage to the substrate surfaces was investigated. The source of contamination was McGann-Nusil 2566 which was heated to deposit a film on the front surface of a temperature-controlled quartz crystal microbalance (TQCM). Removal of the silicone film by the ion beam was quantified by measuring the change in frequency of the TQCM. An ion gun was used to select the ion species of interest and to vary the beam energy. Cleaning rates were determined as a function of ion beam energy and selected beam gases of oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. The results indicate that controlled sputtering can remove of silicone-based contamination films without damaging the substrate

Keywords

ion beam applications; optical materials; polymers; silicones; space vehicles; Ar⁺; McGann-Nusil 2566; N⁺; O⁺; controlled sputtering; ion cleaning; ion gun; optical surfaces; polymer films; silicone-based contaminants; spacecraft; temperature-controlled quartz crystal microbalance; Cleaning; Ion beams; Optical control; Optical films; Polymer films; Semiconductor films; Space vehicles; Sputtering; Substrates; Surface contamination;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1989. IECEC-89., Proceedings of the 24th Intersociety

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.1989.74492

Filename

74492