MICRO: Product Technology News (January 2001)

009;The TurboMatrix thermal desorber can be used for gas chromatography sampling applications such as analyzing hard-drive components for residual greases and mapping cleanrooms for volatile organics. The GC accessory eliminates the need to manually prepare samples. Its graphical user interface with touch screen facilitates access to information, including visual displays of the desorber's operation, set points, temperature conditions, and pressure conditions. The device uses a two-stage solventless process to desorb analytes economically and produce accurate, reproducible results. The HPR-100 plasma workstation optimizes all control and process parameters for investigating plasma activity and plasma interactions with organic, metallic, and composite substrates. The turnkey tool features an inductively coupled plasma cell integrated with both mass spectrometer ion mass/energy and Langmuir probe analyzers for characterization of process and surface interactions. The plasma cell is closely coupled with the manufacturer's EQP and ESP plasma probes to provide detailed analyses such as energy-resolved mass spectra and mass-resolved energy distributions of positive and negative ions; electron-energy distribution functions; and plasma potentials and densities, radicals, and functional groups. The cell comprises a radio-frequency generator, matching network, and four-stream flow control module. The workstation operates with a wide range of gas species, pressures, and plasma powers. The M100 multipoint microprocessor-based reference-ground-quality monitor continuously checks workstations or process equipment for electrostatic discharge. The system offers either 8- or 16-channel ground monitoring, with audible and red-green LEDs for each channel for stand-alone operation and a digital output for direct interfacing with the manufacturer's multiplexing software. The monitor can detect very-low-level reference ground problems, with sensitivity below 50 mV. It also detects ac spikes and complete ground loss. The response speed is 3 nanoseconds, and accuracy is ±1 The Solo Plus aluminum sputtering target for advanced semiconductor manufacturing features fine average grain size and low particle generation for optimal film uniformity and