Surface modification technology is used in many industrial fields. In comparison to ordinary methods, material modification using excimer lamps is considered precision modification as it takes place through a chemical reaction on the molecular or atomic level.
This is a clean modification that does not affect the material and does not create any dust particles and is considered to be effective in fields where more sophisticated levels of material modification are required.
Cleaning
Vacuum UV light, at a wavelength of 172 nm, is produced by an excimer lamp. The 172 nm radiation is significantly absorbed by oxygen so that active oxygen of high concentration can be produced. Vacuum UV light can even break organic matter’s molecular bonds, which helps it to provide advantages in many processes such as enhancing the cleaning quality, expediting the cleaning speed, and boosting the product yield.
Bonding
Microfluidic devices are now being utilized in many different fields, including biological and medical applications. The use of bonding technology in such devices with fine structures needs bonding methods with a higher degree of quality and precision. Bonding that utilizes excimer lamps does not require any adhesive agent and does not cause any thermal deformation and damage, making it suitable to bond microfluidic devices.
Comparison to Other Methods
In the corona discharge and plasma techniques, the target object is exposed directly to discharge and it may be damaged. However in the excimer lamp technique, the object is simply irradiated with vacuum UV light and does not experience any damage.
In the corona discharge and plasma techniques, dust particles produced by electrode spattering may fly upward by air flow and stick to the surface of a target object. Such issues are resolved using the excimer lamp technique which ensures clean processing. Different from the corona discharge and other plasma techniques that use discharge, the excimer lamp technique using light does not cause irregular irradiation and attains uniform and efficient processing across a large area.
The EX-86U features a compact, all-in-one design with an internal power supply, all of which removes the installation task and time. It can be deployed anywhere and can be set up easily in a production line. High versatility for in-line usage makes it easy to integrate the EX-86U into already existing production lines.
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Key Features
- Compact and lightweight
- All-in-one design with built-in power supply
- No damage to object
- No generation of dust particles
- No processing irregularities
- Evenly irradiates a large area by utilizing a flat lamp
- Provides stable output with minimal flicker by utilizing RF discharge
- Single wavelength at 172 nm enables highly efficient processing
- Power supply auto-tuning function for efficient light emission
- Instantaneous lamp on/off operation
- Does not require extra space
- Easy to install and set up in production lines
- Operates on AC100V to AC240V
Applications
Surface modification utilizing excimer lamps can be employed to enhance adhesion and also to improve the materials’ functionality, such as by making them hydrophilic. In recent years, its applications are expanding to include a wide range of materials and fields.
- Improvement of adhesive strength during bonding
- Improvement of adhesiveness during coating and printing
- Improvement of wettability in many materials like metal, resin, and rubber
- Improvement of resist wettability
Cleaning is carried out by simply illuminating the material with light and is particularly effective on materials that are easily damaged by heat or not compatible with wet cleaning.
- Cleaning of glass substrate and silicon wafers
- Removal of adhesive residues, resist residues, oil stain, and organic films
As bonding is performed by surface activation using light, it does not affect materials, simplifies the procedure, assists downsize equipment, minimizes its cost, and enables bonding only at the preferred position. This method can be used on different materials of microfluidic devices.
Microfluidic devices are used in the following application fields:
- Drug discovery support
- Chemical monitoring
- DNA and protein analysis
- Cell experiments