Endoscopic ion pump inspection

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An easy way to determine whether or not an ion pump needs to be rebuilt is to perform an endoscopic ion pump inspection. The hard way is to drop the ion pumps.

In the last few years the prices have really come down on USB and android/iPhone endoscopes. If you do a search on EBay for USB endoscope you will see a lot of choices for under $20.00. The one used in this blog post is 7mm in diameter, which is small enough to fit into a 1.33” CF flange hole.

endoscope

endoscope

endoscope_for_phone

endoscope_for_phone

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this example we inspected a PHI 660 scanning auger system equipped with a 220 l/s ion pump. This system has been in use for about 10 years primarily for depth profiling using Argon gas.

Since there is a shield below the TSP filaments the only way into the ion pumps was thru the un-used 1.33 CF flange that is opposite the ion pump high voltage connector.

This video link shows what it looks like as you move the endoscope around inside the ion pump – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DQVW3DCG9A&feature=youtu.be  Note that the video has a blue tint to if from the built in LED camera lighting.

The color corrected pictures below show that the ion pump elements are pitted, the insulating ceramics are coated and there are some flakes in the bottom of the pump well.   The conclusion was that the pump elements have another year or so left on them and so we will plan on replacing them in 12 to 18 months.

ion_pump_cf_flange

ion_pump_cf_flange

endoscope_inserted

endoscope_inserted

High_voltage_feedthru

High_voltage_feedthru

flakes_in_pump_well

flakes_in_pump_well

Pits_on_titanium_plate

Pits_on_titanium_plate

coating_on_ceramic

coating_on_ceramic

 

 

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