ION SOURCE APPARATUS AND CLEANING OPTIMIZED METHOD THEREOF

PURPOSE : An ion source apparatus and a method of cleaning the apparatus are provided to remove accretion attached to the front and back faces of electrodes of an extraction electrode system easily and rapidly by supplying a rare gas instead of an ion source gas to a plasma chamber and using ions of ion beam based on rare gas plasma for sputtering. CONSTITUTION : An ion source apparatus(1) includes a gas inlet(12), an outlet(13) for emitting ion beam, a plasma chamber(2) having antenna elements for giving kinetic energy to ions while plasma is generated in the chamber, and an extraction electrode system(3) having a plurality of electrodes(20, 30, 40, 50) for extracting ion beam from a plasma electrode located at the outlet. The ion source apparatus further includes a rare gas supply source(60) for supplying a rare gas instead of an ion source gas and forming plasma based on the rare gas, a means for controlling a set parameter such that the diameter of the ion beam based on the rare gas is changed when the ion beam is extracted from the plasma chamber to collide with the electrodes of the extraction electrode system, and a means for determining electrode cleaning time. © KIPO 2005