L-5- VACUUM

TECHNOLOGY FOR
SURFACE ENGINEERING P<<1000 mbar
WHAT IS THERE IN OUTER SPACE?
VACUUM –A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
 The low
pressure/
vacuum
we
encounter
in practice
WHY WE NEED VACUUM PRACTICE IN SURFACE
ENGINEERING?
TO HANDLE/MANIPULATE AIR SENSITE MATERIALS FOR
SURFACE LAYER DEPOSITION. THIS INCLUDES
METALLIC/Ti/Zr/CARBIDES/NITRIDES AMONG OTHERS.

ENSURE COLLISIONLESS LINE OF SIGHT DEPOSITION

INCREASE FREEDOM FROM SURFACE CONTAMINATION

SUBATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES LIKE PLASMA/ VACUUM

BASED CASE HARDENENING METHODS NEED VACUUM

ELECTRON BEAM/ION BEAM/LASER BEAM RETAIN THERE

INTENSITY( BRIGHTNESS) IN VACUUM

CONTROLLED PARTIAL PRESSURE OPERATIONS ARE

POSSIBLE
 CONTAMINATION FREE
SURFACE
Atmospheric
High Vacuum
Pressure

Surface contamination by
adsorption of water
Clean surface
vapour and oxygen

To provide a contamination free surface is an

essential aspect in vacuum processing of
technological surface layers
Pressure ranges of each quality of vacuum in different units
Vacuum quality Torr Pa Atmosphere

Atmospheric pressure 760 1.013×105 1

Low vacuum 760 to 25 1×105 to 3×103 9.87×10−1 to 3×10−2

Medium vacuum 25 to 1×10−3 3×103 to 1×10−1 3×10−2 to 9.87×10−7

High vacuum 1×10−3 to 1×10−9 1×10−1 to 1×10−7 9.87×10−7 to 9.87×10−13

Ultra high vacuum 1×10−9 to 1×10−12 1×10−7 to 1×10−10 9.87×10−13 to 9.87×10−16

Extremely high vacuum < 1×10−12 < 1×10−10 < 9.87×10−16

9.87×10−10 to
Outer space 1×10−6 to < 1×10−17 1×10−4 to < 3×10−15
< 2.96×10−20
Perfect vacuum 0 0 0

SOURCE: WIKI
 WHAT HAPPENS IN VACUUM?

REDUCTION IN MOLECULAR DENSITY

EASE OF COLLISIONLESS MOTION OF MOLECULES
Why do we need vacuum in some of the Surface Engineering
Operations?

Surface Engg involves manipulation of

Air sensitive materials like vapours, ions,
ATMOSPHERE
atoms for modifying surface of a
specimen to engineering requirements.

The atmosphere contains reactive gases

like O2, H2O, N2, H2 which will interfere VACUUM
with the deposition process. VACUUM
CHAMBER

Most of the surface coatings are based

on power beams like plasma, ion,
electron and laser.

Often specific gas composition at

reduced atmospheric pressure is used to
obtain carbides and nitrides
The energetic species both incident and
emitted ones are highly reactive and tend to
lose energy and scattered by interaction with
molecules present in intervening medium.

Ions and vapours as well as the coating surface

Can get contaminated and objective of getting
high quality coatings will be lost.

Most important criteria pertain to mean free

path of vapours/ions and electrons. In
vacuum mean free path is larger than the
chamber dimension. Hence vacuum processes
are line of sight and practically collisionless. Hence We Need Vacuum
which is defined as any
Second criteria pertains to monolayer pressure less than one
formation time, although not significant in atmosphere.
Surface engineering, does matter in case of
surface characterization. This monolayer
formation time sharply increases from few
seconds to hours with pressure falling off.
 THE ATMOSPHERE IS A MIXTURE OF GASES
PARTIAL PRESSURES OF GASES CORRESPOND TO THEIR RELATIVE VOLUMES

PERCENT BY PARTIAL PRESSURE

GAS SYMBOL VOLUME TORR PASCAL

Nitrogen N2 78 593 79,000

Oxygen O2 21 158 21,000
Argon A 0.93 7.1 940
Carbon Dioxide CO2 0.03 0.25 33
Neon Ne 0.0018 1.4 x 10-2 1.8
Helium He 0.0005 4.0 x 10-3 5.3 x 10-1
Krypton Kr 0.0001 8.7 x 10-4 1.1 x 10-1
Hydrogen H2 0.00005 4.0 x 10-4 5.1 x 10-2
Xenon X 0.0000087 6.6 x 10-5 8.7 x 10-3
Water H2 O Variable 5 to 50 665 to 6650
Pressure Units Used in Vacuum Technology

1 atmosphere (at) =

1 mbar = 0.76 torr

760 mm Hg Column=

760 torr =
1 torr = 1.3 mbar

1000 mbar= 1 Pa= 10-2 mbar

105 N/m2= 1 mbar= 100 Pa

105 Pa
 SOME BASIC CONCEPTS
2
vrms
1
P  nmvrms
2
3

1
The arithmetic mean of average molecular  8k BT 2
velocity as deduced from Maxwell s Velocity v  
Distribution law is given by  πm 
n is gas density in #molecules/m3 and m is molecular mass. T is absolute
temperature and k B is Boltzman s constant in J/K
MEAN FREE PATH OF A MOLECULE
P Λ(approx)
The mean free path of 1000 mbar(105 Pa) 0.067 µm
a molecule is given by 10-2 mbar ( 1 Pa) 6.7 mm
1
λ 1
10-3 mbar (0. 1 Pa) 67 mm

2
2 πd 0 n
2
λ
10-4 mbar (0.0 1 Pa) 670 mm

10-5mbar(10-3 Pa) 6700 mm(6.7 m)

Where d0 is molecular diameter in meters
10-6mbar(10-4 Pa) 67000 mm(67 m)
A typical figure for the O2 is 346 pm

0.67 0.005 10-7mbar(10-5 Pa) 670 m

λ( cm)  
p( Pa ) p( torr) 10-8mbar(10-6 Pa) 6700m(6.7 km!)

There is a cross over regime where mean free path far exceeds chamber dimensions.
Let us quantify it.
 Some Dimensionless Numbers
Reynold Number
ρvd
Re 
η
ρ is density, ν is linear velocity of fluid , η is dynamic vis cos ity of fluid
Re>2200, Turbulent flow
1200 >Re> 2200 Transition regime/ Neither turbulent nor laminar
Re<1200, Flow is laminar
KNUDSEN Number ( K n)

λ
Kn 
D
λ is gas mean free path and D is diameter of the Pipe

Laminar Viscous Flow: Kn<0.01 and Re<1200

Molecular flow: Kn>1, Re< 1200. Viscocity can not be defined.

 FLUID FLOW REGIMES IN VACUUM TECHNOLOGY

Two distinct regimes of flow are brought about by values of Kn

Hydrodynamic regime: laws of pressure expression/ fluid flow are valid. Viscosity is
definable. This is viscous flow.

Molecular Flow. Kn>1. Hydrodynamic Equations based on Viscosity are no longer valid.

Collisions are no longer elastic.

Such a regime in vacuum system commences from 5X 10-3 mbar downwards

Design of pumps, chambers, measurement tools need to be addressed by certain other

governing criteria.

This is the regime where power beam/plasma processing methods are based.
Viscous and Molecular Flow

Viscous Flow Molecular Flow

Monolayer Formation Time

It is clear that in molecular flow regime gas –wall collisions will dominate

There are fewer and fewer molecules for inter-molecular interaction.

Such a scenario we can treat in terms of particle flux and monolayer formation time
3.5 x10 22
  1
P( molecules / cm 2 )
( mT ) 2 𝑷(𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒓) 𝝉𝒎𝒐𝒏 (𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒙)
1000 1.5 ns
At 1 atmosphere, there are 10 23 impacts at 10-6 mbar (1 at)
there are around 1014 impacts across a sqr cm surface 10-3 1.5 ms
10-6 1.5 sec
Similarly monomolecular layer formation time can be
defined as 10-9 1500 sec

𝟏. 𝟓 𝑿 𝟏𝟎−𝟔
𝝉𝒎𝒐𝒏 (𝒔) ≅ RETAINTION OF SURFACE PURITY AT
𝑷(𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒓) HIGH VACUUM AND ULTRA HIGH
VACUUM SYSTEMS
What is the consequence of monolayer formation time(𝝉𝒎𝒐𝒏 )?
Not only the collisions are more frequent with chamber walls but also the molecules
have a longer residence time at reduced pressure. Such residence time is expressed
in terms of 𝝉𝒎𝒐𝒏
That means at 𝝉𝒎𝒐𝒏 ~𝒎𝒔ec, there is ample time available for momentum transfer
between molecule/gas atom and the chamber internal surface.

Consequent to this, the molecule when reemitted carries reduced momentum.

And once struck from a particular direction, the reemission of the of the molecule occurs
in a altogether different direction. The original incident angle is forgotten.

This has important bearing on design of vacuum

pumps, gauges and chambers

Sticking Reemission
Impingement
PUMPS AND GAUGES IN VACUUM OPERATION
VISCOUS FLOW MOLECULAR FLOW

G Thermocouple Gauge Ionization Gauges

A Piezo Gauge Mass spectrometers
U Capacitance Gauge Magnetron gauge
G Pirani Gauge Bayard-Alpert Gauge
E
S
P 103 102 10 1 10-1 10-2 10-3 10-4 10-5 10-6 10-7 10-8 10-9
(mbar)

P Rotary Pump/Scroll Pump Diffusion Pump Ion Pump

U Roots Pump Turbo-molecular Pump Cryo-
M Positive displacement Pumps Momentum transfer Pump
P Viscous flow regime Molecular flow regime
S
ILLUSTRATION ON PLASMA VACUUM CHAMBERS

N2-PLASMA

THANK YOU ALL FOR ATTENTION