IMRI facility blog

Because of summer time change, IMRI reservation system experienced a problem, which caused the control box stopping work and time off-set.

OIT people are working on it to solve the problem.

Thanks,

Jian-Guo

EDS and EBSD functions are not working on the Quanta 3D SEM/FIB. The EDS detector is malfunctioning. The HKL software running EBSD shows errors when acquiring band structure. We are contacting the company (Oxford) for the solution and will update when the problem is fixed.

Thank you,

Ich Tran

Update:  EDS is now (11/08/2016) functioning on the Quanta 3D SEM/FIB

Hi, All Xl30 users,

 

The XL30 is down due to the chiller failure on Oct 14.

The part was ordered and delivered on Oct. 25

The chiller is back up running on Oct. 19

The SCSI (electronic printed board) error message and ODP oil level low message showed up during the system recovery.

The FEI service engineer is ordering new parts and will come back to work on the XL30 recovery.

 

The XL30 issue was solved and back up running on Oct. 21th

 

Thanks,

 

Qiyin

Hi, All Magellan Users,

On Oct. 10, a service call was made to deal with users report about imaging shifting. The service engineer came in and found that the e-beam source filament was not conditioned well (under heat) and current was too small (92uA). The more heating current was input to extract more current.  We would wait for more current and more stable.

Oct. 12, the e-beam current 180uA was observed. The source alignment was performed till 4:30pm.  Another service was planned on this Friday Oct 14.

Thanks,

Qiyin

There is a problem with vacuum system of the Quanta 3D SEM/FIB. FEI engineer is fixing it. Please check the instrument status to get an update.

Ich

Update: 13:00PM 09/28/2016, the Quanta 3D SEM/FIB is operational

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

TEM was down because of water leakage. FEI service has been informed. Waiting for response

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

It was reported that TEM was down on 5/25/2016. There were a few problems: water leakage, ODP and high tension. FEI engineer checked TEM and found water leakage at two places yesterday. He also noticed that chiller water temperature was too low. I fixed the problems with water leakage at CCD camera and water chiller today. I started the chiller this evening and will keep running it overnight. I will check the water temperature tomorrow. I hope that the problems can be solved soon.