Leybold Aktiengesellschaft

Leica Mikroskopie Und Systeme Gmbh

Heinrich Gruenwald

Anton Pawlakowitsch

Elke Preussner

Hans Ramisch

Friedrich Scheerer

An emission-free process is described for cleaning precision optics and components of precision optics including the steps of first pretreating a surface of precision optics or a surface of components of precision optics by cleaning the surface in a cleaning bath to which surfactants have been added as wetting agents, circulating the cleaning bath and exposing the surface to ultrasound exposure. The surface then is rinsed with buffered water containing no wetting agents. The cleaning and rinsing steps then are repeated and the surface is rinsed with buffered, deionized water simultaneously with ultrasound exposure, and then sprayed with deionized water simultaneously with fresh water microfiltration. The pretreated surface then is subjected to short-wave UV radiation, highly accelerated electrons or glow discharge to degrade or convert organic impurities and surfactant residues present on the surface of the pretreated surface into carbon dioxide. The degraded surface then is treated by applying either organosilicon compounds or perfluorinated compounds that form a film having a thickness of between 10 and 100 nm on the glass surface under the pretreating and degrading condition, or by applying a non-volatile, hydrophobic substance that readily degrades under the degrading conditions below. The surface then is sealed by forming a film in the presence of UV or electron radiation to form a surface having a surface sealing layer, and then coated whereby the surface sealing layer is either degraded to metal oxide by glowing during coating or the surface sealing layer is activated by glowing during coating.

Process for the emission-free, in particular CFC-free, cleaning of

An apparatus for the implementation of plasma etching processes providing a process chamber, an upper electrode, and a lower electrode. The upper electrode comprises an anode member, movable with respect to the process chamber, and provides a gas shower for delivering a highly reactive gas, such as a gas containing fluorine or chlorine, into the process chamber. The lower electrode provides a surface for holding a substrate to be etched, the lower electrode being supplied with a high-frequency negative voltage and cooled by an outside source. The process chamber is shaped to press the substrate to the lower electrode when the process chamber is lowered upon the substrate in preparation for operation. The process chamber presses the substrate around a continuous periphery of the substrate. The process chamber is provided with exhaust gas export holes which can be progressively aligned with matching holes in a perforated disk rotatably mounted to an outside surface of the process chamber. An accordion bellows seals the interface between the first electrode stem and process chamber, to prevent penetration of particles into the process chamber. The above-described apparatus is all preferably situated in a vacuum chamber.

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Gomaringen, Germany

Heinrich Gruenwald