Category Archives: General Optics and Vacuum

General information on repair, maintenance, and operation of both PHI (Physical Electronics) and other manufacturers’ systems and components

PHI XPS System Specimen Stage Motor fix

Posted on by
Reply
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

The PHI 5400 and 5600 LS (large sample) XPS systems and some of the 5600 and 5700 systems use motors to control the specimen stage via the system control software.

Over a period of many years, the motors can slow down or suddenly stop moving.

This blog post will show you how to possibly solve the problem.

The motors used on the PHI automated specimen stages are TRW precision fractional-horsepower motors. These motors are no longer made but you can sometimes find them on eBay.

In the example below, this motor was working fine and suddenly stopped moving. Lubricating the motor shaft solved the issue.  If you have a PHI automated specimen stage where a motor is sluggish or stopped working, try lubricating it as shown below. If lubricating the motor does not solve the problem, then the motor might be bad and need to be replaced.

Procedure

Remove the defective motor from the specimen stage and set it on a flat surface with the white motor cover facing up.

stage motor

Remove the white plastic cap (2 screws).

Using 3 in 1 oil, put a few drops onto the end bearing and let it soak in for 15 minutes. When the oil is complexly drained into the bearing, apply a few more drops and let it soak in for 15 more minutes. IMPORTANT! Do not use WD40.  That may work short term but long term it will dry out the lubrication on the motor shaft and cause it to seize up.

Wipe off any excess oil and then replace the white plastic cap.

Connect the motor cable back up and test the motor using the software. Do not connect the motor to the specimen stage at this point.

 If the motor now works, you can reconnect the motor.  In the case of an LS system, you need to put the specimen stage into the bakeout position. Then manually set the repaired motor feedthrough to the bake out position and install the motor.

In the case of a 10-323 or 10-325 specimen stage, you need to set the stage to the correct position and set the motor to the correct position in the software before attaching the motor.

Read the blogs below for more information about your specific specimen stage.

LS intro and LS stage notes

71-205-7 / 10-325 Motor installation procedure

Annealing of 316L stainless steel

Posted on by
1
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

As part of a design for a new electron energy analyzer design, we will be using 316L stainless steel for some of the optics parts. While 316L stainless steel is naturally non-magnetic due to its austenitic crystal structure, intense machining, such as cutting or drilling induces stress that converts some austenite into magnetic martensite, and the result is that the 316L will be very slightly magnetic. For our application we need to have all the optics parts be non-magnetic.

The solution is to anneal the 316L parts by heating to 1100C and then cooling rapidly back to room temperature. Annealing reverses this magnetic effect by allowing the distorted lattice to relax back into its original non-magnetic state.

In my search for a company that can provide an annealing service I came across MET-TEK Inc. 

Their prices are very reasonable and besides annealing they offer a variety of services including –

I mention MET-TEK as a resource as it is sometimes hard to find a company that can provide annealing services at a reasonable price. 

DGC III power supply board check

Posted on by
Reply
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

The DGC III ion gauge control is used on many of the older PHI (Physical Electronics) surface analysis systems. Sometimes the DGC III fails to operate properly, and the unit will beep and display 0.0-3

There are several possibilities for this issue;

The filament may be open. This blog post shows you how to test for that – https://www.rbdinstruments.com/blog/how-to-test-an-ion-gauge-filament/

One or more of the voltages on the power supply board (+/-12, +5) may be defective. This PDF file shows how to test for that –

DIG-III-Power-supply-board-checkDownload

Some other things that you can check include –

DGC III Filament Select Relay
Ion gauge coated ceramics

If none of the above things solve the issue then most likely one of the other boards (emission, microprocessor, electrometer, set point) is bad. Troubleshooting those boards is more challenging so typically if the problem is not the filament or power supply board then the unit is set to RBD Instruments for repair. To contact RBD you can create a ticket here –https://www.rbdinstruments.com/support/portal.html