Development of an intense surface discharge pumped vacuum ultraviolet lamp

A large area (15 cm /spl times/15 cm) uniform vacuum ultraviolet light source employing a surface discharge pumping scheme has been developed for semiconductor processing applications. A low inductance pulsed power circuit for initiating the large area uniform surface discharge was constructed. The total stored energy in the capacitors (4.2 /spl mu/F) is 1.9 kJ when charged to 30 kV. A current pulse of 1.5 /spl mu/s with a peak of 210 kA is deposited to the discharge load from the three capacitor modules. The uniformity of the light over the large area surface discharge is 5% on the surface from visible light measurement when alumina is used as a discharge plate material.