Hi Petru,

I don´t know how your system is, but some pics would help. I mean, from your
email I don´t know how the graphite plate is attached to the ceramic heater.
Anyway, perhaps you can dissemble the connectors and clean them with diluted
acid, or with ultrasound, another option which works for us with electric
contacts in a spiral filament of a diffractometer consist in cleaning the oxide
with a scotch-brite scourer, a special one in a brown color, which lack of any
conductive abrasive. Also you can try steel wool, but you must clean properly to
avoid short cuts.

good luck

--- Den tors 2011-12-01 skrev Petru Lunca Popa :

Från: Petru Lunca Popa 
Ämne: [mems-talk] Cleaning Graphite foil full of oxides
Till: "General MEMS discussion" 
Datum: torsdag 1 december 2011 18:58

Hi everyone,

I am working in reactive sputtering in a UHV system and my heater is
damaged. The problem is that the connectors into ceramic heating plate
are full of oxide. I can not use any acides as the graphite foil will
disolve. Does anyone has any ideea how I should proceed? A new heater
plaque (PBN) able to work at 1300 C is around 5000 Euros and also
takes a lot of time. The ceramic heater looks good only the connectors
are looking dirty.

Thank you
Petru