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CHECKLIST FOR Med 020 SPUTTER COATER

IMPORTANT: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO COAT SAMPLES IN THIS DEVICE IF THE GLUE (CARBON OR SILVER PAINT) IS STILL OUTGASSING. STUBS SHOULD DRY AT LEAST 24 HOURS IN A DESSICATOR.

A. Power on the machine.
  1. Turn on the BIG RED power button to the right of Med 020 coater
  2. Turn on the film thickness monitor (STM-100/MF Thickness/Rate Monitor).
B. Load your samples.
  1. Open specimen chamber (lift sputter head up slowly).
  2. Take out the stub holder, remove old useless carbon tape if necessary.
  3. Place stubs on the holder, adding carbon tape for S5000 sample stubs.
  4. Put back the stub holder, check stub holder height, to make it a little bit lower than the top level of chamber.
  5. Press "Rotary" button, then press "Speed" and "Up" buttons to set rotary speed to 2 bars, and press the "Rotary" button again to stop stub holder rotation.
  6. Press "Nominal Value" and "UP" buttons to set the value to 13.2.
  7. Close the shutter and lower the sputter head.
C. Flushing chamber.
  1. Make sure that specimen chamber is closed.
  2. Open the main valve on the Argon tank one half turn counter clockwise (Gauge should be on the 5).
  3. Start the pump by pressing the "standby" button, while holding down the chamber head.
  4. Allow the unit to pump to a vacuum of ~10-4 mbar.
  5. Press "FULL SPEED" button until you see PUMP on the screen. Allow to pump to 10-5 mbar, then press STANDBY again to reduce turbo speed and wait 2 min.
  6. Press the ARGON button. Wait 60 seconds and the vacuum should decrease to 10-2 mbar. If not, gently adjust Ar leak valve. Allow the system to flush for 1-2 minutes and then press the Argon button to shut off the gas.
  7. Allow the system to pump again to a vacuum of ~10-5 mbar.
D. Coating Samples.
  1. Press the Argon button to allow argon to flow and vacuum should decrease to ~10-2 mbar.
  2. Press the "PROCESS LIMIT" button until TIME lights up on display.
  3. Press "ROTARY" button.
  4. Open shutter on top of sputter head.
  5. Press the "SENSOR ZERO" button on film thinkness monitor.
  6. Press the "Process ON" button to start coating. Plasma should ignite and you should see active depostion on the thickness monitor.
  7. After 50 seconds the plasma should shut off, allow it to cool for 30 seconds and then press PROCESS ON to start coating again.
  8. Continue coating the samples (PROCESS ON, cool for 30 seconds, PROCESS ON, etc..) until desired thickness is reached, which is usually 0.0020KA to 0.0030KA on the meter.
  9. Close the shutter right away.
F. Specimen removal/shutdown
  1. Turn off Argon buttons.
  2. Press "STANDBY" a longer time to allow the pump to shut off and vent.
  3. Press the "ROTARY" button to stop the rotation.
  4. Wait for the chamber to come to atmospheric pressure (1.3 +1).
  5. Open the chamber and remove your samples.
  6. Turn off the Argon supply (main valve).
  7. Close the chamber head.
  8. Turn off the film thickness monitor and the sputter coater.
  9. Sign the log book and checkout in the EML store.