Improved performance of nonevaporable getter activated by a continuous wave infrared laser

We demonstrate a simple and efficient activation method of nonevaporable getter where a local heating is provided by a laser source. Dependence of various parameters such as laser power, scan speed, and irradiation time by the degree of getter activation was experimentally examined in detail. It is shown that the laser irradiation enhances the getter activation process considerably by shortening the time and increasing the gas absorption capacity required to achieve a desired vacuum level for flat panel display application The degree of laser activation is compared to that of the conventional thermal heating method. Under the optimized activation conditions, we achieved a vacuum lever of 2x10(-6) Torr from the initial value of 4x10(-4) Torr. Therefore, the laser irradiation method is a very promising technology for nonevaporable getter activation which overcomes a number of problems resulting from the conventional method. (C) 2001 American Vacuum Society.