Overview of Vacuum Technology and Its Uses
Overview of Vacuum Technology and its Applications
One of these scientific and engineering fields, studying and applying vacuum systems, is connected to the technology applied for their maintenance and generation. Research in this field is conducted in an empty space in the absence of air matter, close to a vacuum. The applications of vacuum technology are many, ranging from scientific research to industrial applications.
The importance of vacuum technology can be said to have highly increased in today’s technology. Such include the complicated process entailed in making transistors and also making flat panel displays used in most electronic devices. In the chemical industry, several processes using vacuum technology are such as drying and distillation. In space technology, it is also applied in creating a space similar environment to that of earth.
In brief, vacuum technology plays vital importance in many areas and fields. It is still a subject of continuous research and development with applications from the area of industrial processes to basic science.
Introduction to Vacuum Technology
Definitions and Concepts of Vacuum
Vacuum technology is defined as the science that concerns the process of evacuation and preservation of a vacuum method—one which makes up a space completely emptied of matter. A vacuum occurs when the pressure of a gas is lower in comparison with that of the ambient atmosphere. In vacuum technology, pressure of gas us expressed in units such as torr, pascal, bar, and millibar.
Pressure Measurement and Its Measurement
The most important component or element involved in vacuum technology is the measurement of pressure. Torr pascal bar millibar
The most used units of measurements in measuring pressure in vacuum technology, being in every day application, include the torr, pascal, bar and millibar. The torr is the most used measurement unit for pressure applied in vacuum technology. It is the pressure level of the column of mercury one millimeter wherein the definition of the Pascal, which is the SI unit of the pressure, is equal to one newton force acting on the square meter. Apart from those, other commonly used pressure measuring units in vacuum technology are bar and millibar.
Pumps and Vacuum Pumps
A vacuum chamber actually does need vacuum pumps for the evacuation process and also to keep the vacuum. There are scroll pumps, diaphragm pumps, rotary vane pumps, and turbomolecular pumps. Each of the vacuum pumps described has a very distinctive working and is for some particular application.
The most used vacuum pumps are those with rotary vanes. They work on the basis of making a void in the vaned rotor displacing chambers. While scroll pumps apply two meshes, so-called intermeshing scrolls, to the aforesaid volumes, diaphragm pumps apply a flexible diaphragm. A high-speed revolving rotors are applied in turbomolecular pumps.
Vacuum is empty space. It deals with the science of creating and maintaining a vacuum. In essence, major reliance on the measurement of pressure is placed on vacuum technology. Several pressure measuring units are therefore used in it. There is a wide variety of vacuum pumps which in turn are employed in the creation and maintenance of vacuum may be in pressure-measuring units in a vacuum chamber and its several kinds under varying uses.
Some of the leading industries that benefited from vacuum technology are semiconductor production, surface science, and coating, particle accelerators and beamlines, and vacuum in space simulation.
Semiconductor Production
One of the most important applications of vacuum technology is in semiconductor manufacturing. In the process of producing semiconductors, manufacturing takes place in a clean and controlled environment—something that is provided by vacuum technology. The impurities and contaminants that vacuum technology does away with may have an effect on the performance of semiconductors during the production process.
Coating and Surface Science
Also, the applications include course surface science and coatings. Former is related to the investigation of the chemical and physical properties of surfaces, and with latter, coating is deposited—a thin film of a material onto a surface. This also provides an ultra-clean, controlled environment that is required for surface science and coating applications by the application vacuum technology.
Particle Accelerators and Beam Lines
Other applications of vacuum technology are related to pressure, such as beam line and particle accelerator technologies. Particle accelerators can accelerate charged particles to a high energy so that they can later on be transported or focused by Beam Lines. The vacuum technology provides a high vacuum environment inside the particle accelerator and the beam line for creating a proper condition for the acceleration and transport of particles.
The vacuum technology is also applied in space simulation applications. Space simulation may be defined as a test done on spacecraft and its parts in a virtual space. Vacuum technology is applied here in the creation of a vacuum environment that produces a vacuum and low pressure, among others, as exists in space. This may be used in testing spacecraft and their parts under conditions which are quite near real conditions existing in space.
