Vacuum technology and its applications

Abstract

An area which requires the production and control of a working environment at pressure below one atmosphere is called a vacuum. In this paper, the basic scientific ideas and today's generally accepted methods of producing, maintaining and measuring various degrees of vacua are presented. Vacuum technology has emerged from the purely scientific environment of research to engineering and industrial applications. Among these applications are in: packaging, instrumentation, vacuum measurement, kinetic theory, gas-surface interactions, surface analysis, plasma and ion-surface interactions and etching, nanometer-scale processing, ion implantation, surface modification and coating industry, physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and ion/plasma-assisted PVD/CVD. Some of these applications which are currently in operation in the Philippines are given as examples.