Category Archives: Operation and Calibration Procedures

Operation and calibration procedures for PHI (Physical Electronics) components

20-805 analyzer control calibrations

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This post explains some tests and calibrations for the 20-805 analyzer control which is used on older Physical Electronics (PHI) ESCA, XPS and AES surface analysis systems. The 20-805 analyzer control is typically used to control the 15-255G and 25-260 double pass cylindrical mirror analyzers.

20-805 Analog AES Input Test Procedure

This section explains the procedure for testing whether or not the 0 to 10 volt drive signal from the PC137A or RBD147 interface unit is working properly.

Equipment needed: DVM and BNC adaptor cable

The 20-805 has a gain of 200:1 and the analyzer scale factor is 1.7. This means that the ratio between eV detected and the DC voltage applied to the outer cylinder of the analyzer is 1.7 to 1. For example, to measure a 1000eV electron,  588.823 DC volts must be applied to the outer cylinder.

To calculate what the Analog or Input voltage should be for a particular eV, use the following formula:

Analog or Input voltage = eV divided by 1.7 divided by 200.

Example: 2000 eV divided by 1.7 = 1776.47 divided by 200 = 5.8823 volts on the Analog or Input cable.

Procedure:

  1. Turn the power off on the 20-805 analyzer control.
  2. Remove the Analog Input cable and connect it to a DVM.
    1. Set up an elastic peak alignment with a lower limit of 100 and an upper limit of 100. (This will put the sweep voltage at a single fixed value).
    2. Acquire the alignment and measure the voltage on the Analog or Input cable. The voltage should be about .294 volts DC.
      1. Set up an elastic peak alignment with a lower limit of 2000 and an upper limit of 2000.
      2. Acquire the alignment and measure the voltage on the Analog or Input cable. The voltage should be about 5.88 volts DC.

If the Analog or Input voltage is correct, then the D/A on the PC 137A or RBD147 is working properly.

20-805 Pass Energy Supply Test

The 20-805 Pass Energy Supplies provide the proper voltages to the PHI double pass CMA when used in the XPS mode.

To test:

  1. Short out the Analog Input on the back of the 20-805 with a bnc shorting plug. This will ensure that the high voltage output is zero.
  2. Set the pass energy switch on the 20-805 to 100.
  3. Measure between the HV and IC connectors on the back of the 20-805. The voltage there should track the Pass Energy switch on the front panel with-in .5 volts.
  4. Check that the HV to IC voltage matches the front panel for all pass energy settings.
  5. Measure between the IC and OC connectors on the back of the 20-805. The voltage there should track the Pass Energy divided by 1.7 on the front panel with-in .5 volts.
  6. Check that the IC to OC voltage matches the front panel for all passed energy settings.
Pass Energy Setting HV to IC voltage IC to OC voltage

10

10

5.88

25

25

14.7

50

50

29.4

100

100

58.8

200

200

117.64

If the voltages are not correct, check the 20-805 Pass Energy Supply capacitors and TIP53 transistors.

The 20-805 gain is 200:1.   You can use AugerScan to send out specific voltages on the D/A output (analog input) cable –

1) With the RBD147 on, run AugerScan.
2) Select “Diagnostics” from the “System” menu.
3) At the bottom of the dialog box, make sure the option for “Hexidecimal” is checked.
4) In the Address field for RBD147, enter 10
5) Individually enter the following in the Data field, and hit the Write button for each while checking the 20-805 control voltage:

8000 (0 V)
9FFF (1.25 V)
BFFF (2.5 V)
FFFF (5 V)
7FFF (10 V)

AES Calibration when using a 20-805 Analyzer Control – For a 10-155 or 15-255G Analyzer.

This section explains how to calibrate the AES peak energies and 2 kV elastic peak crossover.

Tools needed: Insulated adjustment screwdriver (pot tweaker)

Copper foil or gasket material.

Procedure:

  1. Read this entire procedure before starting the calibration.
  2. Load a sample of copper foil into the system and set the beam voltage on the 11-010 electron gun control to 2kV.
  3. Position the sample to the focal point of the analyzer using the AES Align routine. At this point it does not need to be exactly at 2kV, just make sure that the peak is maximized.
  4. Sputter the sample clean. Note: If you do not have a sputter ion gun on your system, then scrape the sample with a razor blade or exacto knife before you load it into the system to remove the surface carbon and oxygen.
  5. After the sample is clean, re-acquire the elastic peak and re-check that the peak is at maximum counts and beast shape. Do not worry if it is not at 2kV crossover, that will be adjusted later.
  6. From this point on, DO NOT MOVE THE SAMPLE!
  7. Acquire an alignment from 900 to 960 eV and differentiate the data. The peak should be at 920 differentiated. If not, adjust the scale factor in the AugerScan Hardware Configuration menu a little bit and re-acquire the alignment and check the position. A large scale factor number will move the peak down in eV.
elastic-peak

elastic-peak

  1. Re-peat and adjust the scale factor as necessary until the differentiated copper peak is at 920eV.
  2. Change the alignment settings to 2kV default and re-acquire the elastic peak. But, DO NOT MOVE THE SAMPLE!  If the peak is not at 2kV, then adjust P1 in the 11-010 to move the peak so that it is at 2kV. Caution! There is high voltage present in the 11-010, do not perform this adjustment unless you are qualified to work on high voltage.   Refer servicing to qualified personnel.
beam-voltage-adjustment-potentiometer

beam-voltage-adjustment-potentiometer

Location of P1 in the 11-010 Electron Gun Control is shown above.

 

  1. Once you have the 11-010 adjusted to 2kV, change the beam voltage to 3kV and acquire a survey from 30eV to 1030eV, 1 eV per step, 50 ms per point, and 3 sweeps.
  2. When complete, the survey should look like the date below after it is differentiated:
auger-copper-data

auger-copper-data

Calibration Complete!

Need more help with your 20-805?  Contact us.

Measuring electron beam diameter

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This procedure will allow you to determine the electron beam diameter diameter on scanning auger electron spectrometers using the line scan feature of AugerMap software and the magnification standard (or, a straight edged sample). Although written for scanning auger electron spectrometer systems, the principle is the same for SEMs – scanning electron microscopes – measure the slope across an edge at a known magnification.

1. Insert the beam size standard into the system and perform an elastic peak alignment on the top surface of the sample to ensure that the sample is at the correct Z position with respect to the analyzer.  Do not tilt the sample.

set-elastic-peak

Set elastic peak

 2. Next, change the beam voltage to 10KV and adjust the electron gun parameters for a good image at 5000X or higher magnification.

3. if so equipped, adjust the Condenser and Objective steering plates for minimum movement. (If an SEM, rock the lenses).

4. Ensure that the image is in the best possible focus.

5. Lower the magnification to the lowest possible setting and move the beam size standard to the center hole to find the grid and adjust the Z position until the grid is in focus.  The sample is now at the correct focal point on the analyzer. This is a good trick that you can use on any scanning auger system – if you first set the elastic peak and then the focus, as long as you mechanically bring the sample back into focus after moving to a different location on the sample (and do not change the focus knob or settings in the software), the sample to analyzer distance is still correct.

6. Set the magnification to 100KX and fine-tune the focus and stigmators as required. The sample can be moved on either the X or Y axis until you are able to line up on one grid line.

7. Obtain an SED video map and use the quantization feature if necessary.

8. Select the line scan feature in AugerMap and draw a line horizontally across the grid line.

9. For AugerMap1, Add region – SED line.

10. Select Video input; point one ms per step, number of sweeps one, and resolution 256 points per line.    For AugerMap II, select SED video map.

auger-map-2-sed-dialog-box

AugerMap 2 SED dialog box

 

 

 

 

 

auger-map-sed-dialog-box

Auger Map version 1 SED dialog box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. Acquire the line scan.

12. After the line scan is completed it will show a display of signal intensity on the Y-axis vs. distance scanned on the X-axis. At 100KX magnification, this distance is 1uM, or, 10,000 angstroms. By determining the slope of the beam diameter as it crosses the edge of the sample, the beam diameter can be determined.

13. Print out the line scan and use a ruler to determine the top 20% and bottom 20% of the line scan. Draw a line across the top 20% and bottom 20% of the line scan.

14. Next, draw a line on the slope of the beam diameter as it drops down or up between the 20% lines.

15. Determine the distance between the slope of the line at the top of the scan and the bottom of the scan.  This distance represents the beam diameter in relationship to the full scan (10,000 angstroms at 100KX).

16. The example below shows in detail how this measurement is calculated.

beam-size-measurement

Beam Size Measurement

 

Perform this measurement anytime that you wish to know the size of the electron beam diameter for any given set of conditions.  If the beam size is too large to see one grid line, you can reduce the magnification to 50KX, in which case full scale on the X-axis would be equal to 20,000 angstroms.

Planned power outage procedures for scanning Auger

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This planned power outage procedure is written for a Physical Electronics (PHI) 600 scanning Auger system, but it applies to all older PHI systems including the 5000 series X-ray photoelectron spectrometers.

At many companies and universities the facilities departments occasionally have planned power outages for maintenance purposes. The following procedures detail the steps that you need to take to safely shut down and then power up your PHI Auger, XPS or SIMS surface analysis system.

Shutdown procedure

Vacuum Console:

  1. Make sure that all valves are closed on the auto valve control remote.
  2. If necessary, use the manual valve control buttons on the AVC to close any open valves.
  3. Check that the auto valve control auto/manual switch is in the auto setting.
  4. Turn off the turbo pump(s) and mechanical pump(s)
  5. Turn off the auto valve control power.
  6. Make sure that the leak valve on the ion gun is closed (fully CW, do not over tighten)

Electronic Console:

  1. Turn off the electron gun units – 20-610, RBD110
  2. Turn off the analyzer units – 32-150, 32-100
  3. Turn off the 11-065 ion gun control
  4. Shutdown the PC and monitor
  5. Turn off the RBD147 PC interface unit
  6. Turn off the DIGIII ion gauge control
  7. Turn off the Boostivac ion pump control
  8. Turn off the main and interlock circuit breakers on the 18-030 power interlock

660 Scanning Auger and 5000 series XPS shutdown:

  1. Turn off units on vacuum console as per the above procedure
  2. On the electronics console, turn off the card rack power
  3. Turn off the PC and RBD147 PC interface unit
  4. Turn off the 11-065 ion gun control
  5. If an XPS system, turn off the x-ray source control and the HV power supply
  6. Turn off the DIGIII ion gauge control
  7. Turn off the Boostivac ion pump control
  8. On the EMO (emergency off) box, press the RED shutdown button

 

Power up procedure

Vacuum Console:

  1. Turn ON the auto valve control power
  2. Make sure that all valves on the AVC remote show red for closed
  3. Turn on the turbo pump(s) and rough pump(s)

Electronic Console:

  1. Turn ON the main and interlock circuit breakers on the 18-030 power interlock
  2. Turn the Boostivac ion pump meter to 10kV
  3. Turn the Boostivac power to Start and check that the high voltage comes up to 5kV or more. If the voltage does not come up the system may be partially up to air. If the high voltage does come up, set the Boostivac power switch to Run
  4. Turn on the DIGIII ion gauge control by setting the power switch to UHV, then press I/T3 to start the ion gauge. Normally the reading will be in the low 10-9 Torr range or lower.
  5. After 10 to 30 seconds the interlocked power on the 18-030 should turn on.
  6. The system is now under vacuum.  The rest of the units will be turned on by the operator of the system the next time the system is used.

660 Scanning Auger and 5000 series XPS power up:

  1. On the EMO box, press the yellow reset button
  2. On the EMO box, press the Vacuum console and Electronics console buttons.
  3. Turn ON units on vacuum console as per the above procedure
  4. Turn the Boostivac power to Start and check that the high voltage comes up to 5kV or more. If the voltage does not come up the system may be partially up to air. If the high voltage does come up, set the Boostivac power switch to Run
  5. Turn on the DIGIII ion gauge control by setting the power switch to UHV, then press I/T3 to start the ion gauge. Normally the reading will be in the low 10-9 Torr range or lower
  6. The system is now under vacuum. The rest of the units will be turned on by the operator of the system the next time the system is used

Additional Information:

Sometimes the Boostivac high voltage meter does not read properly. If it does not indicate 5kV when turned to Start, you can set it to Run and if the Boostivac does not shut off in a few seconds, then the meter circuit is defective and the high voltage is probably working properly. If the Boostivac shuts down after a few seconds when set to run, then the system probably leaked up to air and needs to be pumped down.

scanning-auger-electronic-console

scanning-auger-electronic-console