The future of vacuum technology

For 30 years vacuum technology has responded to spontaneous efforts to extend the limits of vacuum production and measurement and to the demands of diverse fields of application. In the future it is predicted that: vacuum pumps will see incremental improvements, particularly cryogenic pumps; more fundamental and less empirical research will take place on seals and outgassing leading to major improvements; vacuum gauges will improve incrementally; calibration will improve greatly and will be extended to 10−13 Pa (10−15 Torr); calibration methods will utilize cryogenics; leak detectors with sensitivities approaching 10−13 cm3 STP s−1 will appear commercially; a gauge to assess directly the interaction of ambient gases on surfaces will be developed; more special purpose vacuum facilities, such as storage rings and fusion reactors, will be built; portable systems at ultrahigh vacuum will multiply; microelectronics under vacuum will master the control of fabrication from 10 to 10 000 Å and new products will appear, in particular three-dimensional structures; there will be a synthesis of vacuum technology with lasers, superconductors, catalysis, and solar energy; pervading all these developments will be an ever-increasing application of microprocessors and computers to vacuum systems of all kinds.