Oven: VST High Vacuum Oven
Overview
The VST High Vacuum Oven features directly heated shelves that can be programmed to heat up to 300oC in as little as 15 minutes. The high vacuum chamber can easily pump down to 10-7 Torr, pumped by a turbo pump which is backed by a dry scroll pump (with no oil back-streaming to worry about). While it is very fast to heat up, the cooldown process can be slow (several hours). To preserve the interior surfaces from excessive oxidation, the chamber can only be vented once the shelves have dropped below 100oC. The chamber is vented with nitrogen. A partial vent is possible if you need to allow your sample to cool completely down to ambient temperature while in a nitrogen atmosphere. There are two approximately 11” x 11” (280 mm x 280 mm) shelves, and two custom made aluminum trays. It can bake eight 4” wafers at a time. There are no windows, so light sensitive parts can be baked as long as they are wrapped in foil on the way into the chamber.
Some examples of what this tool is useful for:
- baking oxygen or water vapor sensitive polymer coatings in vacuum
- baking out metal films without oxidizing the surface
- low temperature metal contact annealing in high vacuum
- drying out moisture from materials
- driving off adsorbed water vapor from wafer surfaces
- fully cross-linking polyimide under vacuum
- baking assemblies which will go into other vacuum stations
- flip chip solder reflowing
Contact Information
Tom Carver
650 723-1861
Getting Started and Training Information
In order to become a qualified user of the VST High Vacuum Oven, you need to follow each of these steps in the order as listed here:
- Complete the process to become a lab member of SNSF and follow the instructions to activate a Badger account.
- Complete the process to become a Flexible Cleanroom user.
- Contact Tom Carver to be qualified to use the oven.