Author: qiyinl

Hi, All Magellan Users,

 

There were a few cases that the e-beam was shut off without any warning in last few days Sept 6-8.

FEI service was called on Sept 8.

The FEI engineer came in today (Sept 9) has completed Magellan SEM maintenance (source alignment).

The e-beam shut-off issue occurred again Sept 19-20.

FEI service was called. The FEI engineer thought a bake-out of e-column should improve the vacuum level and prevent the e-beam from shutting-off due to the vacuum reaching limit. We planned to have a bake out on Monday Sept 26 overnight.

The Magellan was baking out on Sept 26 overnight. However, it was found that the vacuum could not be recovered to UHV in the source.  We decided to have another baking out tonight Sept 27.

Sept 28, We continued working on the column vacuum issue and found the IGP2 may have degraded and need to be replaced. The IGP2 and new source was ordered together and they would arrive on Sept 30th.

Sept 30, the new source and IGP2 was installed. The column was pumped and baked over weekend.

Oct. 3, Monday, FEI engineer performed source conditioning and e-beam alignment for the whole day.

Oct. 4, Tue, noon, the alignment was done. The Magellan seemed to work.

 

Thanks,

Qiyin

Hi, All evaporator users:

 

July 22: We found tonight that the He compressor for the evaportor failed. This problematic unit is one that was recently replaced (January 2016) after our originally-purchased unit failed in a similar manner: When the compressor was restarted, it ran for a few minutes, then turned itself off. We are contacting The Brooks company…

 

July 25:  It turned out that our Compressor was defective; Brooks will send a good one for us to replace. There is no spare on in the US warehouse. The new one will be shipped from German. We will make it shipped to us as quickly as possible…

Aug 2:  Good news: the cryopump helium compressor installation proceeded smoothly yesterday and that the evaporator has pumped down successfully.  We have tested and ensured key parameters (base pressure, etc.) are satisfactory. Users are welcome to use the evaporator now…

 

Thank you

 

Qiyin

June 8: The evaporator is down due the chiller failure. We have found out the chiller pump is needed to be replaced. We are ordering the new part and will fix the issue as soon as possible.

June 10: The chiller pump was out of stock in market. We need to wait for delivery till earlier July …

June 23: We received the new water pump and started installing the replacement  pump.  Unfortunately, we accidentally overtightened one of the Swagelok tube fittings during our attempted repair and damaged it. We were purchasing new parts for repair.

July 8: Here is good news. The chiller issue has been solved. The Angstrom evaporator is fully operational now. We have tested the deposition process and confirmed that the instrument is on good status. Please go ahead to reserve the instrument time you need.

Sorry to have this long downtime.

Qiyin

Hi, All Supra users:

 

The Supra XPS is down due to the X-ray emission current issue. We are contacting the Kratos service for solution. (Oct 20)

We received feedback from Kratos today (Oct 26) that the X-ray filament in the SAC has to been replaced. The Kratos is arranging an engineer to visit us this week (probably on Wed, 28th) to solve the issue. Will keep you updated.

The X-ray filament was replaced on Nov. 4. The system was pumped and baking 12hrs. The filament was checked good at vacuum e-7 Torr range.

The Supra system is scheduled to vent and shut off at the night Nov.6 due to the building cooling water shut-down in the morning of Nov. 7.

The Supra will be baked over weekend of Nov 8-9. We will re-condition and test the X-ray filament on the  Monday, Nov 9.

The Supra is up running today, Tuesday, Nov 10 2015.

Thanks,

Qiyin

Hi, XL30 users,

XL30 ODP vac issue has occurred for more than one month and now is solved. Here are some major troubleshooting and repair processes for this issue that we had taken from March 3 to April 24:

1. The SEM was down in the morning March 3th because of its chiller problem. The chiller pump was out of order and cooling fan was broken. The pump was replaced by a new one.  We ordered a new cooling fan to replace the broken one (~March 10).
2. It was found that the chiller compressor did not work after previous repair. The Scientific Refrig was called for service to repair the compressor. A new compressor was ordered to replace the broken one. The XL30 was up on March 20.
3. March 23 2015, a user found that the sample chamber could not be pumped with an error message saying leakage between buffer and pre-vacuum pump. The big crack on tube line connected to the mechanical pump was found and fixed. However, the chamber was still not pumped down. The ODP message said it is in heating status. FEI service was called for this issue.
4. FEI engineer come in on March 24. He found pumped down was working OK. He cycled the pump/vent multiple times with no errors. It was suspected that the mechanical pump and printed electronic board for vacuum control part might cause the ODP issue and had better be replaced. These two units were ordered to come next day. The replacement was planned to be done on March 25. The XL30 was tested to work well.
5. The ODP issue still occurred during March 25-30. FEI engineer came in to checked the system and found that the intermittent error is coming from communication to Mccb that controls the framestore. He ordered a new Mccb coming in tomorrow and planned to replace it on April 2 10am-2pm.
6. March 30-April 1, Xl30 had some vacuum issues: vent fail; vac button not enabled. FEI engineer came in to replace the Mccb. It was thought vent issue may be related to the student not opening the N2 valve; and the Vac button being disabled may have been a result of someone hitting the VAC button. A plastic cover was made and installed above the VAC button to prevent the similar issue happens again. Tested pump/vent sequence numerous times without errors.
7. The VAC button was unenabled and ODP vacuum error message was reported by a senior XL30 user on April 3. FEI engineer came in and thought the system VAC was getting intermittently disabled without apparent reason. He suspected that PLCB-2 (programmable logic control board) may have issues. The new PLCB-2 was ordered to come next day. The replacement was planned.
8. The Vac error message still occurred to XL30 users from April 4-10 and were reported to FEI service team. The ODP oil level was checked and replaced as well as the 0-ring in ODP was replaced.
9. FEI head tech support was contacted for this issue April 12. We were promised that FEI service team would put a plan together to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
10. FEI engineer came in to check the XL30 and new parts for XL30 were ordered to fix the ODP issue April 13. I was informed that a few things were identified that may have been contributing to the issue: 1. The temperature setting on the chiller was set wrong; the chiller water flow going into the SEM was down to zero on flowmeter, and air leak behind the ODP. These things were fixed and XL30 was tested to work well.
11. We continued to have ODP vacuum errors occurred to XL30, April 13-14. FEI service was called.
12. April 15, a FEI engineer came in and found that V3 ODP leaking when opened and under vacuum. An ODP valve was ordered to come tomorrow to change it out. I was informed that it was OK to use but we had better leave the chamber vented when done to stop air loss.
13. ODP valve was replaced and system was tested to work well on April 15.
14. The error of Vac/HV button disabling still occurred from April 16-April 20. The FEI service was contacted for this issue. I was informed that users should take note of the error code to help FEI try to get to the root of the problem. Users need to log how many times and what happen before and after each error event. There may be multiple issues dealing with Vac button going off. This should give enough data to look at. The service repair was planned on April 24 Friday. Meanwhile, I was informed that there were a lot of moistures in the air line that caused a lot of rust in the air cylinders.
15. FEI service engineer came in April 24. The moistures from compressor tank in the airline were removed. In addition, the moisture in the trap underneath the system was emptied out. FEI informed that the moisture in the airline should be emptied out in a regular base.
16. XL30 is up and working since April 24- May 7 2015.

The XL30 is up now. The ODP issue has been solved.

Please reserve and use it and let me know if you have questions.

Thanks,

Qiyin

XL30 is down due to the vacuum leakage. FEI service was called….

 

The vacuum issue is solved and XL30 is up now…

A Rigaku Tech visited LEXI for the UltimaIII maintenance .

Dec. 1 2014:

i) Original optical configuration: BB/Dtex.

ii)The optics was switched to BB/SC; reference Si samples was tested. It was found that the attenuator was not installed and receiving slit box was not installed at right position.

iii) The optics was set as PB/SC; CBO peak position was checked. After 2 months operation, the peak position was found to be shifted ~12% (one month 9%).

iv) PB optical alignment could not be performed smoothly. The PB alignment failed twice for unknown reasons.

vi) All test results and alignment results were sent to TX for review.  Waiting for feedback….

Dec. 2 2014:

i). The tech got more experience with the UltimaIII.  Finally BB optical alignment was completed without difficulties.

ii) PB optical alignment could be performed without difficulties. The less absorbers were used for optical alignment. It was believed that the counting loss calibration could be better in this way. Tests with regular PB and BB optics looked like normal.

iii). PB thin film stage alignment was performed but failed with an error message saying the attenuator can’t be switched to “0” position “.

Test results were sent to TX Woodland for further review and feedback…..

Dec. 3 2014

The thin film stage alignment still can not be performed successfully with unknown reasons.

More diagnosis and trouble-shooting is required…

 

Hi, All UltimaIII users,

The UltimaIII has been down due to the cooling water failure. We are working on the chiller repairmen.

I will keep you updated.

Thanks, Qiyin

 

Hi, All UltimaIII users,

The chiller has been solved (temporarily) in the week of Nov. 3th. The UltimaIII was up running.

Thanks, Qiyin

Hi, All UltimaIII users,

The UltimaIII is down due to the failure of theta-D motor driver. The new part has been ordered. I will keep it updated.

The Smartlab is having a error message related to its X-ray generator this morning.

Working on troubleshooting…..