Traceable measurement of speci fic organic species at industrially relevant surface by infrared spectroscopy

Deposition of organic materials on hardware, high tech vacuum components and spacecraft materials is a common risk in the fabrication of space industry instrumentations, which often leads to impair their functionality. Metrological procedures that meet the industrial needs are urgently required in order to detect and quantify a contamination at relevant surfaces. In this work, a direct method based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was developed providing both qualitative and quantitative information on the source of the contamination. According to Thales Alenia Space (TAS) requirements, three main categories of contaminants were selected: hydrocarbons, esters and silicones. Traceable reference materials belonged to these categories were chosen and used for calibration equipment. A practice to assist in the preparation of the calibration curves of the selected standards within the concentration range useful for practical applications is here presented. This methodology was further applied in the framework of BepiColombo program to detect organic contamination into TAS2 and 2B cleanrooms, and it resulted to meet the industrial needs for monitoring surface contaminants.