Getterers/gettering

Gettering. Gettering materials, such as zirconium or titanium alloys, are heated to 400°C. At that temperature, they react with the impurities in the gas stream such as O2, H2O, N2, H2, CO, CO2, and hydrocarbons. Total impurities can be reduced to <100 ppb. 

Extended defects range from well characterized dislocations to grain boundaries, interfaces, stacking faults, etch pits, D-defects, misfit dislocations (common in epitaxial growth), blisters induced by H or He implantation etc. Microscopic studies of such defects are very difficult, and crystal growers use years of experience and trial-and-error teclmiques to avoid or control them. Some extended defects can change in unpredictable ways upon heat treatments. Others become gettering centres for transition metals, a phenomenon which can be desirable or not, but is always difficult to control. Extended defects are sometimes cleverly used. For example, the smart-cut process relies on the controlled implantation of H followed by heat treatments to create blisters. This allows a thin layer of clean material to be lifted from a bulk wafer [261. 

In order to remove tlie unwanted electrical activity associated witli deep-level impurities or defects, one can eitlier physically displace tlie defect away from tlie active region of tlie device (gettering) or force it to react witli anotlier impurity to remove (or at least change) its energy eigenvalues and tlierefore its electrical activity passivation). 

Gettering is a black art. It consists in forcing selected impurities (typically, transition metals) to diffuse toward unimportant regions of tlie device. This is often done by creating precipitation sites and perfoniiing heat treatments. The precipitation sites range from small oxygen complexes to layers such as an A1 silicide. The foniiation of such a... 

Because of it has great affinity for oxygen, the metal is used as a "getter" in electron tubes. It is also used in photoelectric cells, as well as a catalyst in the hydrogenation of certain organic compounds. 

Hafnium is used in gas-filled and incandescent lamps, and is an efficient getter for scavenging oxygen and nitrogen. 

Titanium hydride is used as a source for Ti powder, alloys, and coatings as a getter in vacuum systems and electronic tubes as a sealer of metals and as a hydrogen source. 

Barium is prepared commercially by the thermal reduction of barium oxide with aluminum. Barium metal is highly reactive, a property which accounts for its principal uses as a getter for removing residual gases from vacuum systems and as a deoxidiser for steel and other metals. 

The largest use for barium is as a getter to remove the last traces of gases from vacuum and television picture tubes. It is ideal for this use because of its combination of high chemical reactivity and low vapor pressure (28—32). In some cases it is used as powder obtained by vaporization ia an electric arc (33). It can also be used as an aluminum ahoy (see Vacuum technology). 

Lighter Flints and Getters. Traditionally the item most widely associated with cerium has been the pyrophoric iron-mischmetal (- 0%) alloy for lighter flints, in limited use in the 1990s. Similar low vapor pressure reactive alloys based on cerium, such as Th2Al-MM, can also be used as getters for electronic equipment and vacuum tubes (see Electronic materials Vacuumtechnology). 

Cesium was first produced ia the metallic state by electrolysis of a molten mixture of cesium and barium cyanides (2). Subsequentiy the more common thermochemical—reduction techniques were developed (3,4). There were essentially no iadustrial uses for cesium until 1926, when it was used for a few years as a getter and as an effective agent ia reduciag the electron work function on coated tungsten filaments ia radio tubes. Development of photoelectric cells a few years later resulted ia a small but steady consumption of cesium and other appHcations for cesium ia photosensing elements followed. 

Vacuum Tubes. In the manufacture of vacuum tubes for use in polarized ion sources, vaporized cesium is used as a getter for residual gaseous impurities in the tube and as a coating to reduce the work function of the tungsten filaments or cathodes of the tube. The cesium vapor is generated by firing, at about 850°C within the sealed and evacuated tube, a cesium chromate pellet and zirconium (12) (see Vacuum technology). 

Metallic Sr and Ba are best prepared by high-temperature reduction of their oxides with Al in an evacuated retort or by small-scale electrolysis of fused chloride baths. They have limited use as getters, and a Ni-Ba alloy is used for sparkplug wire because of its high emissivity. Annual production of Ba metal is about 20-30 tonnes worldwide and the 1991 price about 80-140/kg depending on quality. 

Fang-mittel, n. (Elec.) gettering agent, getter, -stoff, m. (Paper) stuff from the save-all. 

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