[labnetwork] PDS 2010 Labcoter 2 - Contamination Control

[Robert M. HAMILTON]

Norman Gottron,

The UC Berkeley NanoLab and its predecessor, the Microlab have operated a
model PDS10 labcoater 2 for more than a decade. It is a reliable tool and
SCS has provided good advice and support.

As noted, the parylene films it creates needs periodic cleaning from the
internals of the coat chamber. These residues might cause issues in a
cleanroom; however, from experience they tend to peel off in fairly large,
cohesive layers and not as fine particle.

To better manage our tool we have made a few modifications:

1) we do not vent to air; we vent to dry nitrogen. Regrettably, too many
researchers vented the tool to air while the cold-finger (coldtrap) was
still chilled and failed to lift it out of its chamber which resulted in
condensation. n warmup this would end up in the Edwards RV-8 wet pump
trashing its oil.
2) we exchanged the RV-8 for a Kashiyama NeoDry 15C, a drypump of similar
throughput, about few years ago which has performed well and required less
maintenance than the wet pump.
3) we keep spare Convectron gauges and periodically check to make sure the
1/8" NPT port for this gauge does not get clogged with parylene.
4) using the resources of our machine chop we built a jig that holds the
coldtrap horizontal. It has a rod-guided movable scrapper which facilitates
cleaning films from the cold finger.

I also am guessing because we use a dry pump we could eliminate LN and
replace the cold finger by stuffing some large surface area material, such
as a stainless dutch-weave as found in many foreline traps and toss it when
it get loaded. A similar recommendation is to test  Chore-Boy copper
scrubbers as a cheap, large surface area disposable trap material to
protect the dry pump from parylene vapor. As of now we have not done a test
to see the efficacy of such a process change. It would be easy to place a
substrate at the bottom of the trap and measure how much, if any, parylene
broke through the trap.

 [image: Inline image 1]

Regards,
Bob Hamilton


Robert Hamilton
University of CA, Berkeley
Marvell NanoLab Equipment Manager
Rm 520 Sutardja Dai Hall, MC 1754
Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone 510-809-8618 (desk - preferred)
Mobile 510-325-7557 (my personal mobile)
E-mail preferred: bob at eecs.berkeley.edu
http://nanolab.berkeley.edu/



On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 11:10 AM, Norman Gottron <ngottron at andrew.cmu.edu>
wrote:

> Hello All,
>
>
>
> We are looking to relocate our SCS parylene deposition (PDS 2010 Labcoter
> 2) system to our new cleanroom facility, and it seems wise to consider
> contamination control in placing this tool.  I know that the use of these
> tools is relatively widespread, and I am wondering how others handle the
> particles/parylene flakes that are released when the tool is cleaned and
> maintained.  We recently experienced an uptick in use on the tool and began
> running thicker deposition (on the scale of microns for each deposition),
> both of which have contributed to particle concerns in the area around the
> tool.  Most of the particle concerns are a result of cleaning the cold trap
> probe (indicating there may be a better way to do this), but we’ve had to
> recently tear into the system and unclog the vaporizer line, which also is
> a pretty dirty process.
>
>
>
> In particular, can anyone comment on the following?
>
> ·         Is your system located in clean space?  If so, what is the
> class designation of its location?
>
> ·         How do you mitigate the risk of particle release during tool
> maintenance/cleaning?
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
>
>
> Norman Gottron
>
> Process Engineer, Carnegie Mellon University Nanofabrication Facility
>
> Electrical and Computer Engineering | Carnegie Mellon University
>
> 5000 Forbes Ave
>
> Pittsburgh, PA 15213
>
> Phone: 412-268-4205 <(412)%20268-4205>
>
> Fax: 412-268-3497 <(412)%20268-3497>
>
> www.ece.cmu.edu
>
> www.nanofab.ece.cmu.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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