Evaporator Instructions

Things to have ready:

  1. Clean inside of bell jar and all surfaces inside the evaporator with wipes and Acetone.
  2. Prepare desired evaporation material, load material into proper boat.

 Procedure

Things to turn on in the Service Corridor:

  1. Liquid Nitrogen Tank
  2. At the machine:
  3. Turn on cooling water (if not already on)
  4. Turn on compressed air (if not already on)
  5. Turn on power box on the wall
  6. Turn on power for Vacuum Gauge (Terranova unit)
  7. Turn on power for Liquid Nitrogen Exhaust Line Heater

Running the machine:

  1. Press button to start mechanical pump (Now the lights should work)
  2. Set valves to the following position
  3. Vent valve CLOSED (OFF)
  4. Roughing valve CLOSED (OFF)
  5. Hi-Vac valve CLOSED (OFF)
  6. Foreline valve OPEN (ON)

(Diffusion pump takes about 15 minutes to warm up; the following steps only need to be performed if the pump is cold (first evaporation).  Another note about the diffusion pump is that it should not be operated unless the pressure at TC2 is near .001) Check pressure at TC2.  If pressure at 0.01 or lower press button to Start diffusion pump.  If pressure above 0.01, continue with procedure and press button to Start diffusion pump when it drops to 0.01.

  1. Check Vacuum Interlock light (green light)
    1. If lit: Press Up to open bell jar
    2. If not lit: OPEN Vent valve, wait for light to turn green, press Up to open bell jar
  2. Place wafers on wafer tray, place weight on top of the wafer.
  3. Check bell jar seal ring vacuum grease, if no grease spread thin layer of grease on seal
  4. Press Down to close bell jar
  5. CLOSE Vent valve
  6. Press button to turn Diffusion Pump OFF
  7. CLOSE Foreline valve
  8. OPEN Roughing valve
  9. Wait for pressure on TC1 to approach 0.01
  10. OPEN Foreline valve
  11. Wait for pressure at TC1 and TC2 to approach 0.01
  12. Press button to Start Diffusion Pump
  13. Wait for pressure on TC1 and TC2 to level out at 0.01
  14. CLOSE Roughing valve
  15. Turn on Liquid Nitrogen Line 1/8 turn
  16. Wait 30 seconds for Cold Trap to get cold
  17. OPEN Hi-Vac valve
  18. Turn on filament for UHV sensor (Filament button on Terranova Unit)
  19. Wait for pressure in chamber to drop to 5E-5 Torr
  20. Turn on power switch for evaporation source
  21. Slowly turn up power
  22. Watch the evaporation to make sure that material does not overflow
  23. Once material stabilizes turn up power to 100%
  24. Wait necessary time
  25. Turn power down to 0%
  26. Turn off power switch for evaporation source
  27. Turn off Liquid Nitrogen Line
  28. CLOSE Hi-Vac valve
  29. Turn off filament for UHV sensor
  30. OPEN Vent valve
  31. Wait for Green light
  32. Remove wafers and spent evaporation boat
  33. If there are more runs to be performed leave Diffusion pump on
  34. Load new evaporation boat and wafers and repeat procedure

If there are no more runs to be performed:

  1. Turn off Diffusion Pump
  2. CLOSE Bell jar
  3. CLOSE Vent valve
  4. CLOSE Foreline valve
  5. OPEN Roughing valve
  6. Wait for pressure at TC1 to drop to 0.01
  7. OPEN Foreline valve
  8. Wait for pressure at TC1 and TC2 to drop to 0.01
  9. CLOSE Foreline valve
  10. CLOSE Roughing valve
  11. Wait 10 minutes and turn off cooling water

procedure prepared by Francisco Tejada, Spring 2003; modified by La Vida Cooper, Spring 2003.