UVOCS UV/Ozone Cleaner Manufacturer: UVOCS Operating Instructions

General Information and Usage:
UVOCS ultraviolet / ozone cleaner is used for cleaning of wafers contaminated with organic substances. The cleaner contains a low pressure, quartz, mercury vapor lamp that generates 185-nm and 254-nm UV light. Atmospheric oxygen absorbs the 185-nm UV light, dissociates to atomic oxygen, and forms ozone. The organic contaminants are excited and/or dissociated by the 254-nm UV light. After excitation they easily react with ozone to form non-condensing, volatile compounds, such as CO₂ and H₂O vapor. The process takes place at essentially room temperature in one to several minutes. Upon prolonged cleaning, a temperature rise is possible. If the cleaner is in continuous use, temperatures up to 70ºC should be expected.

For more information about ozone cleaning, please read the paper by J.R. Vig, UV/Ozone cleaning of surfaces, J. Vac. Sci. Technol A, Vol. 3, No. 3 (1985) pp. 1027-1034.

Important safety information: Excessive exposure to ozone may be damaging to the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. The allowable OSHA exposure limit is 0.1 ppm for a time weighted average (TWA) of eight hours. Most humans can smell ozone at concentrations below the permissible OSHA limit. The UV/ozone cleaner is equipped with an ozone exhaust shroud (OES) with an air switch that will prevent the equipment from operating if appropriate exhaust flow for ozone removal is not obtained.

Contact Information for Users of PRISM Micro/Nano Fabrication Lab:
For additional information regarding the UV / Ozone Cleaner, please contact the PRISM Staff at: PRISM-CLEANRM-OPS@princeton.edu