[labnetwork] Turbo Pump for STS DRIE, Leybold MAG 900

[Robert M. Hamilton]

Julia Aebersold,

UC Berkeley's experience with Leybold turbos has been 
excellent. We have also had good experience with rebuilds 
for both Leybold and Seiko-Sekei (now Edwards) turbos. We 
have used Highvac Corp, www.highvacgroup.com for most 
rebuilds and pleased with their work and the way they treat 
us. Over the years we've upgraded some older Seiko-Sekei 
turbo controllers as older controllers seem impossible to 
get rebuilt and Seiko's newer controllers are more flexible.

Turbos do age and there is considerable electrical and 
mechanical stress on the drive elements of these pumps. They 
do have a finite lifetime. I would turn to a reputable turbo 
rebuilding service for their advice about your specific unit.

 From a different standpoint, your decision may be 
influenced by your gas throughput needs and achieving better 
etch performance at higher gas throughput.

Historically, UC's STS was originally equipped with a 
Pfeiffer turbo w/Hollweg stage, i.e. a high throughput turbo 
with performance enhanced by a high-pressure stage.  This 
pump failed after relatively short service life because of 
sulfur deposition in the tight annulus of the high pressure 
stage. This issue was specific to this process. It does 
point out the difficulties one may face with a process that 
produces effluents change to a solid phase within the 
pressure range of a pump. With help from STS we replaced 
this turbo with a Pfeiffer that did not contain a high 
pressure stage and we added an Edwards QMB250 blower to 
recover the lost throughput.

Our newest STS systems are equipped with Oerlikon (Leybold) 
turbos and these systems have been in operation for two 
years without any vacuum pump issues.

Bob Hamilton


Robert M. Hamilton
Marvel NanoLab
University of CA at Berkeley
Rm 520 Sutardja Dai Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1754
bob at eecs.berkeley.edu
(e-mail preferred)
510-809-8600
510-325-7557 (mobile - emergencies)


On 6/22/2012 9:08 AM, Aebersold,Julia Weyer wrote:
>
> We have experienced a failure of our turbo pump for our 
> STS DRIE system (sigh).  Our turbo pump is fairly old and 
> was new in 2001, but has not been run constantly.  I have 
> been talking with STS and they have suggested the upgrade 
> to the Leybold MAG1500, but has quite a significant cost. 
> I wanted to tap into our group to find out whom else has 
> encountered such a problem and if they were able to just 
> replace the MAG 900 with a refurb unit or if they bit the 
> bullet and did the upgrade.  If you purchased a refurb 
> unit please also include the vendor you used.
>
> I also found out that the heater tape to keep the SF6 
> residue from condensing hasn't functioned for a majority 
> of years of service.  While this is being remedied I 
> wanted to also find out what PM items and schedules you 
> perform at your facility to keep such a catastrophic 
> failure from happening. I am also wondering if this is the 
> normal life expectancy of a turbo pump.
>
> I welcome your comments.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Julia Aebersold, Ph.D.
>
> MNTC Cleanroom Manager
>
> Shumaker Research Building, Room 233
>
> 2210 South Brook Street
>
> University of Louisville
>
> Louisville, KY  40292
>
> 502-852-1572
>
> http://louisville.edu/micronano/
>
>
>
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