The Simple Benefits of Plasma Cleaning in Manufacturing

Author: Melody Liu

Sep. 01, 2025

The Simple Benefits of Plasma Cleaning in Manufacturing

Plasma cleaning in manufacturing can be quite integral in the production of various parts and products. It can be added to a manufacturing process without adding time while improving the performance of bonds, coatings, plating, or other applications versus other methods of surface cleaning or activation. The benefits include no additional time (low takt time), lower cost, and higher bond performance.

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Adding a plasma cleaning step into a natural manufacturing process can be done without adding additional manufacturing time or steps. This is accomplished by essentially removing an alternative cleaning step that is inferior. Other cleaning methods can be very wasteful and time-consuming. Plasma cleaning is a very clean and efficient step that improves overall product quality.

Plasma Cleaning Benefits

Plasma cleaning of material in a manufacturing line can improve the performance of the bonds created further down the line. More reliable bond performance is achieved because plasma cleaning will remove any foreign material (FM) accumulating on the base material. If the foreign material is on the part when the bonding step happens, it can inhibit that bond and create adhesion issues. The best way to solve the problem created by foreign material preventing adhesion is to identify the type of foreign material and generate a plasma cleaning process with proper chemistry to remove it. The plasma cleaning process can be easily adjusted to remove many kinds of foreign material typically found in the manufacturing process.

Cleaning with a plasma treatment has the benefit of improving the performance of a coating or plating in manufacturing. This is accomplished because the plasma cleaning process makes adhesion to the base material without contaminant interference. Contaminants often inhibit the plating or bonding in a manufacturing process that can cause fish eyes, bubbling, or other adhesion issues that can cause significant problems. These problems often result in scrap, waste, and lost profits. Plasma cleaning before these bonding and plating process can alleviate many of these issues.

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Plasma cleaning is excellent for eliminating volatile organic compounds in the manufacturing process. Volatile organic compounds or VOCs can be generated during chemical cleaning process that involves harmful compounds. These are often expensive and harmful to people that work near them. Plasma cleaning processes eliminate the need for any dangerous compounds that would be generated using a chemical bath. Plasma cleaning is very environmentally friendly, while many methods can use just atmospheric air or oxygen as the process gas.

Plasma Cleaning Process

Implementing a plasma system into a current process can be quite simple. There are many options and customizations to integrate a plasma chamber into an existing line. There are manual plasma cleaning system versions where an operator could load and unload the parts. Fully automated systems are also available where a robot or preprogrammed operation could be automatically cleaned in the production line. These plasma processes ensure a clean, sterile surface for the next manufacturing step. This cleaning approach creates high quality, clean material.

Did you know that many contaminants on a surface that can negatively impact adhesion are not always visible? They can exist on a surface at a microscopic level. A basic wiping of a surface or a basic cleaning step can leave molecular level contaminants on a surface. Plasma cleaning removes impurities or foreign material from a surface on a microscopic level and ensures a pristine surface for subsequent bonding purposes. Implementing a plasma cleaning after a basic bulk clean can be very beneficial as well. After a bulk clean, the plasma cleaning will remove any leftover traces of microscopic contamination from the basic cleaning process. 

Plasma cleaning has many benefits when used in the manufacturing process. These benefits include no additional time added to the process, short takt time, lower cost, and higher bond performance. There isn't extra time added because a plasma cleaning step typically eliminates another basic cleaning step; additionally, the plasma cleaning process is often quicker. A plasma cleaning process also has a low takt time versus primers or other chemical surface preparation steps because a simple cleaning process can be done in bulk and has short cycle times. The very low running costs can mitigate the startup cost of purchasing a plasma system. The longer you use a plasma system in manufacturing, the lower the overall costs become. Plasma cleaning a surface before bonding or plating will create higher bond performance between the coating and the material's surface and contributes to better overall product quality and positive customer feedback.

Tergeo Plus ICP- & CCP-RIE: Oxygen & Argon Plasma Cleaner

Description

The Tergeo Plus is an easy-to-use, versatile plasma cleaner that can operate in a number of different modes using a range of gases. Currently, only oxygen and argon gases are hooked up to the instrument, which are suitable for many sample cleaning and resist ashing (i.e. resist removal) applications, though a third gas connection exists if there is a need to use another gas (e.g. hydrogen for plasma cleaning with a reducing environment). This cleaner can be operated in Direct Mode (aka Immersion Mode), which involves striking an inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) directly in the sample chamber, or Remote Mode (aka Indirect Mode), which involves striking a capacitively-coupled plasma (CCP) in a remote chamber. The Remote Mode is the more gentle cleaning mode because it only allows neutral species to make their way into the chamber and participate in cleaning by means of chemical reaction (e.g. oxygen radicals react with surface hydrocarbons to create volatile species like CO and CO2 that can then be removed via the vacuum). Low power modes can also be achieved in either Direct or Remote Mode by varying the pulsing ratio. See below for the full list of resources related to this instrument.

Are you interested in learning more about ICP Plasma Cleaner? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!

Applications
  • Remove hydrocarbons from SEM/FIB samples to prevent "black box" effect from happening while imaging (use O2 or O2/Ar plasma)
  • Remove residual resist from developed lithography processes, aka "descumming" of the substrate surface (use O2 or O2/Ar plasma)
  • Sputter away small amounts of surface materials (use high-power Ar plasma)
  • Activate the surface of PDMS polymer to make it adhesive to e.g. glass slides, for use in microfluidic device fabrication (use O2 plasma)
  • Running a hydrogen plasma has not yet been tried but could theoretically clean e.g. graphene without oxidizing it (O2 plasma would)
  • Any other process that requires the non-directional removal of material by reactive-ion plasma

Resources

Equipment Data
SOP & Troubleshooting
  • SOP & Troubleshooting Document
Graphical Handouts
  • Graphical Handout (see it also pictured at right)
Video
  • PIE Scientific's Product Overview Video
Manufacturer Manuals
  • Operating Manual
  • Quick Start Guide
Note on Cleaning for SEM & FIB Samples
  • During SEM or FIB imaging, the local specimen area will heat up due to added energy from the beam. If there is organic matter on the surface from a previous process (e.g. solvent treatment) or from simply being exposed to the ambient environment, the heat causes hydrocarbons to evolve from the surface, whereupon they become a precursor gas for an electron-beam- or ion-beam-aided, chemical-vapor-deposition of carbon back onto the surface, now in a denser form. This carburization of the surface often results in a “black box” appearing in areas where the beam was highly concentrated, e.g. where a reduced area window was used for a focusing step (carbon has a low yield of secondary electrons, SEs, and thus the carbon area appears darker). Note that the carburization process happens more quickly at lower e-beam accelerating voltages because the chemical vapor deposition is dependent on the presence of SEs, which are emitted in higher quantities at low voltage. Cleaning a specimen with an O2 and/or Ar plasma (or H2 if a reducing environment is necessary to prevent oxidation) will remove the hydrocarbons and prevent this process from happening to a noticeable degree while imaging.

Specifications

Manufacturer Specifications
  • Manufacturer Data Sheet
Mode 1 Specifications
  • Power Range: 1 to 150 W
  • Pulsing Duty Ratio Range (N/255): 1 to 255, where
    • Example: With 10 W power, if N=25 then the average power as a function of pulsing would be [10 W * (25/255) = 0.98 W, on average]
  • Gas Flow Rates: 0.1 to 100.0 sccm
  • Ultimate Vacuum: < 30 mTorr

Related Instrumentation in the KNI

Sample Preparation for Microscopy
  • Oxygen & Argon Plasma Cleaner (Tergeo Plus ICP- & CCP-RIE) to remove hydrocarbons from surface
  • Carbon Evaporator (Leica EM ACE600) to make samples conductive
  • TEM Sample Preparation Equipment: Polishing Stations, 3 mm Disk Cutter, Dimpler, Argon Ion Mill
Scanning Electron & Ion Microscopes

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