Patent ID: 7458247

Claim:
A vacuum apparatus comprising: a vessel for defining a predetermined space; a gas exhaust unit for exhausting a gas from the vessel via a gas exhaust line; at least one gas exhaust control unit installed on the gas exhaust line, for controlling a flow rate of the gas exhausted from the vessel; a particle monitoring unit installed on the gas exhaust line between said at least one gas exhaust control unit and the gas exhaust unit, for monitoring particles within the gas exhaust line; and a power supply unit for generating an electric discharge within the vessel, wherein the power supply unit starts the electric discharge when said at least one gas exhaust control unit permits the exhaust of the gas, and the particles monitored by the particle monitoring unit include the particles detached from the vessel due to the electric discharge, and wherein the electric discharge is generated by intermittently repeating an application of a high voltage from the power supply unit.