Vacuum chamber assembly

Where complementary areas of expertise come together

Lithography systems such as wafer scanners and wafer test equipment containing the highest levels of technology place extreme demands on the electronic controls of such equipment. Our client deals with the electronic control units such as process controllers, motor controllers, safety controllers and e-cooling units. This involves not only pure electronics, but also smart applications, such as water-cooled printed circuit boards. And that is where the interface lies with Teesing as a specialist in liquid and gas systems in these kinds of high-tech machines.

Testing electronics under cleanroom conditions and in a vacuum is a challenge. Especially when it concerns high voltage electronics. In this case the customer needs a vacuum chamber that is able to test electronics under high vacuum (10^-7 mbar). It is an ultra high purity application with a cleanliness of Grade 2 on the inside and Grade 4 on the outside.

This is a prototype where cooperation started with a first design by our customer.

Rendering of the vacuum cross piece that this project revolved around.

Photo: example of a control unit where electronics and fluid systems come together.

Tight collaboration

Our project team and engineers started with a review of the design for manufacturability. There is a lot involved in this, so we look at:

optimal design, by applying "best practices"
is it logical what has been designed?
are as few components used as possible?
check tolerances so that parts fit together properly
check spatial volumes: does it fit in the space and can it be assembled?
does it fit on other parts? (For components that have not been purchased before, theory and reality sometimes differ).

One of the regular issues in prototype development is that changes are made when the development of the prototype is already in an advanced stage. This places demands on your project team and the procedures must be in order if you want to deal with this properly. On-the-fly engineering, which involves gradually determining whether the application works and meets the specifications, but is also easy to assemble and practically workable.

The reasons why we assemble for customers varies. Common forms of cooperation are:

gas and liquid specialists from customers who engage us for our knowledge
complete sourcing and complete delivery of subsystems
cleanroom assembly capacity

Risk management

The essence of leading this type of project is risk management. That is why these risks are discussed extensively with the client. We indicate where the bottlenecks are and together we look for solutions. For example, if delivery times for parts are too long. The biggest impact on the result is often in the case of production parts, the risks of which are discussed in detail with our supplier in order to prevent errors and guarantee delivery times.

Multi-disciplinary project

But in the case of the assembly of this vacuum cross-piece, a different type of collaboration is involved. This assembly is multidisciplinary: a combination of electronics, vacuum parts and mechanics.

This is where our expertises complement each other: our customer is specialised in electronics. And we are specialised in gas and liquid systems. Because we complement each other so well, we sought cooperation for this project.

The construction of this vacuum chamber is not much different than others:

A diaphragm vacuum pump which creates a low vacuum
turbopump, controlled by control electronics
vacuum pressure sensor
cross section, whereby the object to be tested can be placed in the middle
5kV high voltage feedthrough
machined parts for access to the vaccuum chamber and the high voltage feedthrough

Photo: Assembly in the part of our cleanroom with the highest cleanliness.

Assemblage van het vacuüm kruisstuk klaar voor tests.

Photo: the assembly ready for tests.

Sourcing for prototypes

Sourcing components for prototypes is a bit different than making offers for large quantities for long-term series production of machines. When developing prototypes, TPDs and BOM lists are often just a sketch. Make parts must be examined on manufacturability, cost price and delivery time. Purchasing parts on deliverability and price. This is the ideal phase for us to think along with the customer and look at all available alternatives in the market.

And continuity of delivery is not an issue with prototypes. We look for a few examples of components. In our own stock, but also in the stock of customers. This enables us to supply some components that are difficult to obtain, in consultation, very quickly.

Additional capabilities

The project team develops test specifications, in which we look at the functional requirements - what must the system be able to do in terms of pressure, temperature, vibrations. In many cases this results in derived test specifications that make it plausible that the assembly will work properly in the context of the machine. Or as in this case: by testing that the seals meet the standard, it can be assumed that the high vacuum will be achieved. And that was essential, because at this stage the system as a whole could not yet be controlled and the high vacuum could not be achieved in practice. Normally, cleanroom assemblies are subjected to various tests, such as:

Leak tests
Particle tests
Baking out
VOC test

The most common tests we do are particle testing and leakage testing. The latter was not possible in this case, because the vacuum pressure sensor cannot handle positive air pressure compared to the atmosphere.

Photo: the access to the vacuum chamber for placing the electronics to be tested. Also visible is the high voltage feed through.

More information?

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