Hi Charlie, We have a single chamber Plasma Therm system, which is heavily used for III-Vs and SiC. Most etching is with Cl2 or other chlorine-based gases and SF6. We unfortunately have to have the turbo pump rebuilt every 6 months or so (we are not sure why it fails so frequently). We don't ever have problems with "wafers lost inside" (how are the wafers getting lost? Is there some problem with the handler?) but we open the chamber nearly every week for cleaning. The SF6 and SiCl4 which is used deposits lots of residue on the chamber walls and on the top electrode which must be cleaned frequently. We scrub the chamber and then pump down for 8 hours before using it again. Hope this help, Bill -----Original Message----- From: mems-talk-bounces@memsnet.org [mailto:mems-talk-bounces@memsnet.org]On Behalf Of Charlie Suh Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 11:59 AM To: mems-talk@memsnet.org Subject: [mems-talk] Plasma-Therm ICP I was wondering if anyone else on this newsgroup uses a dual chamber Plasma-Therm ICP. I have a few questions for those who do. 1. How often do you have to change out your turbo pumps to be serviced? 2. What kind of restrictions do you have for each chamber? 3. How often do you have to open the chamber to remove wafers lost inside. Thank you, Charlie -- Charlie Suh Electrical Engineer II Mircoelectronics Research Center 791 Atlantic Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30332 Email: cs176@prism.gatech.edu _______________________________________________ MEMS-talk@memsnet.org mailing list: to unsubscribe or change your list options, visit http://mail.mems-exchange.org/mailman/listinfo/mems-talk Hosted by the MEMS Exchange, providers of MEMS processing services. Visit us at http://www.memsnet.org/