Etching Degradation of Elastomer O-rings

• Elastomer O-rings are commonly used as vacuum seals, O-ring degradation and particulate generation has been observed in some plasmas systems
• Mechanistic understanding of O-ring degradation from plasma exposure could enable new, resilient elastomer development
• Degradation tests conducted in semiconductor industry relevant gases and chamber layout
• Etching species diagnostic experiments
• Prototype radical probes designed and tested to measure F radicals in SF6 and NF3 plasmas