Plasma surface treatment system (Diener Pico) This system is used to plasma treat (clean, activate or slightly etch) substrates at room temperature. To achieve this, the process gases are lead into a chamber which has been made vacuum. By subsequently applying a RF voltage to the top electrode (bottom electrode is grounded) inside the chamber, a plasma is built up between these parallel plates (see schematic figure below). In this plasma, radicals of the gases are formed, which are heavily reactive. The layers on the substrates placed towards the top electrode are etched chemically by means of these radicals, reacting on the surface of the substrate and physically by means of ions bombarding the surface. Cmst's Diener Pico system is equipped with a 40 kHz RF generator, and can generate a max. power of 200 W. The gases used in this system are either air or pure oxygen. In both cases the active radicals will primarily be oxygen.

Sputter coater (Alcatel SCM600) The Alcatel SCM600 sputter machine can do sputter deposition of conducting materials in DC magnetron mode (normally non-reactive, but reactive sputtering with oxygen is also possible) on flat substrates up to 6" diameter (target diameter is 203mm).

Evaporator (Leybold-Heraeus Univex 450) The Leybold-Heraeus Univex 450 machine evaporates thin layers of isolator, semiconductor and metallic material. The materials that have to be deposited are heated resistively (boat) or by means of electron gun (e-gun) to their evaporation temperature. As the process is carried out in high vacuum, the evaporated atoms emerging from the evaporation source follow straight lines to the substrates. On the substrates, the atoms sublimate into a solid film. Of course, not only the substrates but also the walls of the evaporation chamber are covered by this film.

Vacuum alloying furnace (Heraeus VT0542) Perform baking steps (up to 400°C) in a low pressure environment (~ 10-1 mbar). This oven should not be used for solvent extraction, outgassing steps or similar purposes. There are dedicated pumps for that. Consequently, all substrates for this oven should also have a low solvent content and must be pre-processed in the proper way. This generally involves a suitable pre-heating step on a hotplate or the like. Contact the machine responsible to obtain approval and pre-processing instructions for each material. The oven can also be used without being pumped down, but this practice should be avoided. There are plenty of other regular ovens around. If you do use it without vacuum, the maximum permissible working temperature is 250°C.

Nitrogen flushed furnace (Hereaus WU6100G) Perform baking steps (up to 450°C) in a slightly pressurized inert nitrogen atmosphere.