Vertical Loaded Thermal Vacuum Chambers

By Nanovac AB

VERTICAL LOADED chambers allow for the DUT (device under test) to be introduced into the test vol-ume through a opening in the top (or bottom) of the system. We have delivered vertical load chambers as large as 3 meters in diameter, but there is no real limit on the diameter. It is driven by your requirement. We offer a number of stand-ard chambers in vertical configuration, ranging from 300mm in diameter up to 2000mm. We also offer ”clam shell” designs, where the top part of the chamber moves first up, and the tilts outward to provide better access to the thermal test plate. Safe-ty is a very important factor when dealing with vertical load chambers, as there typically is a moving (and sometimes tilting) component. As the weight of these chamber parts can be quite high, operator safety is our main concern. We adhere to EN ISO 13849-1 in re-gard with operator safety when developing and building our vertical load chambers. In most cases this means there is a dual hand control for chamber movement (ensuring that the operator has both hands in a safe position), and safety hard-ware to ensure the mating flanges are free from obstruction. Normally also an audible/visual signal is present alerting people adjacent to the system that there is heavy ma-terial movement going on. We can also provide custom solutions to safely transfer the DUT in and out of the testing chamber. The systems can be equipped with different types of high vacuum pumps, typically though they are equipped with cryo pumps and/or turbo molecular pumps. All our chambers are man-ufactured from either stainless steel or alu-minium. It depends on the requirement of the end-user. We always recommend adding as many ports as possible, as there is always a time, where you would wish for one more. That being said, each ports come at a cost. We also provide custom rectangular port interfaces that can have literally any shape or form, and be designed to have replaceable mating flange adaptors that allows for a multitude of connectors and interfaces to the DUT. The chambers can be fitted with a very wide array of internal furniture, ranging from passive tables/shrouds to temperature active tables/shrouds. A lot of our configurations are delivered with a thermal test plate alone, but with means to retrofit a thermal shroud should it be required. The chambers are equipped with mounting brackets and mounting lugs within the vacuum volume to simplify installation of new hardware as it is required. The same brackets can also be used to route testing cables and other materials required to set up the test campaign. Due to the open format architecture of our control system, it is easy to add features and functionality to the system as requirements change and develop over time. For example, it may be in the future that an RGA (residual gas analyser) is required in a test campaign, and with our automation suite it is very easy to implement both the hardware but also the software and generated log data and tie it into the SQL data logging capabilities of our software package. This also ensures that both legacy and future data-logging adheres to the ANSI ISA 88 standard that we use on all our data logging platforms. The open format also allow for easy integration of new hardware on the system, including gauges, sensors, and other analytical equipment required. It is also possible to add remote control functionality so that the cycle recipes can trigger events that modify operational parameters on the DUT. The variations and configuration options are virtually limitless. All our systems are sold as turn key systems, this means that in a normal configuration ALL the required vacuum pumps, gauges and valves are included in our delivery. For rough vacuum (initial pump out of test volume and DUT) we recommend using dry vacuum pumps to eliminate the risk of contaminating the volume with lubricants from the roughing pumps. There are additional benefits from choosing our dry vacuum pump solutions, as this also allows for frequency con-trol, meaning that you can control the pumping speed dur-ing the rough vacuum stage (ultimately down to the 1e -3 mbar range).