Table of Contents
Summary of Contents for PIE Tergeo-EM
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Page 1: Operator's Manual
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Operator’s Manual Tergeo plasma cleaner PIE SCIENTIFIC LLC Address: 3209 Whipple Road Union City, CA, 94587, U.S.A. Tel: +1-510-788-2439. Email: support@piescientific.com... -
Page 2: Chapter 1 Legal Notice
PIE Scientific makes no warranty or representation, either expressed or implied on this document. In no event will PIE Scientific be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages resulting from any defects in its documentation. -
Page 3: Table Of Contents
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Chapter 3 Table of contents Operator’s Manual ............................1 Tergeo plasma cleaner ..........................1 Chapter 1 Legal notice: ..........................2 Chapter 2 Safety compliance symbols used in this manual ................2 Chapter 3 Table of contents.......................... - Page 4 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Getting familiar with the system ......................19 Assembly procedure ........................... 21 Getting started ............................ 23 Chapter 8 Operation ........................... 25 8.1 General guidance..........................25 8.2 Sequence of operation........................25 8.3 Understand the main screen layout ....................
- Page 5 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 8.11 How to set the right gas flow rate for hydrogen gas..............34 8.12 How to create extremely weak oxygen plasma for some critical biopolymer processing applications ............................. 34 8.13 How to improve the gas purity for some critical applications............35 8.14 How to use plasma emission sensor reading as the end-point indicator for oxygen plasma ashing process ..............................
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Page 6: Chapter 4 List Of Figures
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 10.16 What to do if the plasma intensity sensor fails................45 10.17 What to do if the pressure readings stays at atmospheric pressure? .......... 45 10.18 How to use the plasma cleaner if the pressure sensor fails? ............45 10.19 How to replace the pressure sensor if the filament burned out? .......... -
Page 7: Chapter 5 Operation Safety
Any unintended usage outside the scope of this manual can results in damage of the equipment or cause harm to the operator. PIE Scientific LLC is not liable for damage or personal injury for any unintended usage of equipment. -
Page 8: Electrical Ratings
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 7) If potentially dangerous gas will be used to generate plasma, please check the leak rate of the gas delivery system following the procedure in section 10.6. 8) Tergeo series plasma system is an electrical equipment. To avoid electric shock, please follow all standard electrical safety precautions. -
Page 9: Environmental Conditions
Failure to follow the safety precautions may result in serious damage to the system or may cause personal injury. PIE Scientific LLC is not liable and will not honor the warranty if the applicable safety precautions are ignored by the users. -
Page 10: Iec 61010-1:2010 Electrical Safety Conformity Certificate
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 5.5 IEC 61010-1:2010 electrical safety conformity certificate... -
Page 11: Ul/Csa 61010-1 Conformance Certificate From Tuv Rheinland
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 5.6 UL/CSA 61010-1 conformance certificate from TUV Rheinland. -
Page 12: Ul Japan Rf Emission Conformity Certificate
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 5.7 UL Japan rf emission conformity certificate... -
Page 13: Chapter 6 Introduction
TEM rod from major TEM vendors. There are two different chamber sizes available. The quartz chamber in basic Tergeo and Tergeo-EM plasma cleaner has an inner diameter of 110mm. The inner diameter of the quartz tube in Tergeo-plus plasma cleaner is 160mm. The depth of the sample chamber is 280mm. -
Page 14: Immersion/Direct Cleaning And Remote/Downstream Cleaning
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 pressure sensor is integrated, the user should set a flow rate that provides a pressure between 30~300mTorr for plasma processing. Plasma intensity sensor can constantly monitor the emission intensity of the plasma. Plasma intensity is a unit-less relative measurement providing users with real- time feedback. -
Page 15: Pulsed Operation Mode
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Figure 3, downstream/remote plasma cleaning mode If the pressure in the downstream sample chamber is too low, plasma from the remote plasma source may diffuse into the sample chamber. Then user should increase the gas flow rate/pressure so that remote plasma will die out sooner. -
Page 16: Plasma Sensor
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 6.5 Plasma sensor Tergeo plasma system has integrated an advanced plasma emission intensity sensor. It can measure the plasma emission intensity in real time. The maximum value of the plasma intensity sensor is around 750 to 850. -
Page 17: Chapter 7 Installation
Take out the accessories on the top of the plasma machine. Count the accessories and compared them with the packing list. If any parts are missing, contact PIE Scientific LLC. c. Take out the packing foams on the side to release the Tergeo plasma system. - Page 18 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Plasma cleaner should be placed on a secure table space, connect the inlet port of the vacuum pump to the pumping port of the plasma cleaner using stainless steel bellow or rubber hose. The pumping port on the plasma cleaner is a standard NW25 flange.
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Page 19: Step 3, Set Up The Plasma Cleaner
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Step 3, set up the plasma cleaner Getting familiar with the system When the system is shipped to the customer site, the chamber might be under partial vacuum. Do not try to open the front door when the system is still under the vacuum. - Page 20 MFCs. Dust will create the vacuum leak issue. Please use treated clean air (CDA) or nitrogen to vent the chamber. If treated clean air line or nitrogen line is not available, please contact PIE Scientific LLC to buy a room air dust particle filter.
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Page 21: Assembly Procedure
Damage caused by such negligence will not be protected by PIE Scientific limited warranty policy. 2) Please make sure all the four rubber feet land on a flat table space. If an object is placed under the middle of the plasma cleaner, the enclosure bottom plate will deform under the weight of the plasma cleaner. - Page 22 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 8) Connect the compressed gas bottle to the corresponding gas inlet port with ¼ inch thick wall PTFE Teflon tubing or metal tubing. When the gas tubing is first connected to the plasma cleaner, the gas inside the tubing is mostly room air.
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Page 23: Getting Started
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Getting started Once the plasma cleaner is assembled, vacuum pump and process gases are connected, user can prepare the system for first run. 1) Turn on the power button on the back of the plasma cleaner. Touch screen user interface will power up. - Page 24 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Figure 9, Touch screen user interface Please follow step 3 and 4 to test the gas leak rate, if potentially dangerous gas such as hydrogen will be used. Recommended gas input pressure is 5 ~ 10 PSI. Do not raise the gas input pressure above 15 psig.
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Page 25: Chapter 8 Operation
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Chapter 8 Operation 8.1 General guidance. Tergeo plasma cleaner can be operated manually by setting rf power, gas flow rate, cleaning time or by executing a recipe. We strongly recommend user operate the plasma cleaner in the recipe mode. -
Page 26: Understand The Main Screen Layout
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 3) Start the plasma cleaning. The user can now start the plasma cleaning session by executing a predefined recipe or job. 4) Unload the sample. Once the plasma cleaning session finishes, click the vent button to vent the sample chamber. -
Page 27: Manual Operation
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 8.4 Manual operation In the middle panel, the user can manually pump down and vent the sample chamber, set gas flow rate, set up rf power supply, switch between immersion and remote processing modes and set the timer. 8.4.1 Pumping down the chamber. -
Page 28: Stop The Process Manually
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 If plasma doesn’t ignite after the rf output is on, please click “Auto Tune” button. Set rf power here Duty ratio for pulsed mode. Figure 11, rf power control 8.4.6 Stop the process manually By clicking the stop button on the right panel, the user can stop gas flow and rf power and place the system in idle state. - Page 29 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Figure 12, Recipe library Figure 13, edit recipe window, left: the recipe can be edited by the user. Right: the recipe has been locked to prevent unintended modification. Once the “Edit Recipe” button is clicked, a sub window (Figure 13) will pop up to let the user modify the selected recipe.
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Page 30: Run A Cleaning Recipe
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Depending on purchasing option, up to three gas input ports can be integrated into the Tergeo plasma cleaner. Cleaning duration is specified as minutes + seconds. Left box specifies minutes. Right box specifies seconds. - Page 31 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 3. Start RF power. 4. Ignite plasma. If the plasma doesn’t start at recipe power, the system will automatically increase the rf power to ignite the plasma. Once the plasma is ignited, the system will automatically reduce the rf power to the recipe setting.
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Page 32: Execute A Job Sequence
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 9. Pump down the chamber again after purging. Figure 14, Job sequence 8.6.4 Execute a job sequence Job sequence function can execute up to three recipes with the click of a button. Recipes to be executed in the job sequence is specified in the three boxes (Figure 14) at the bottom left corner of the main screen. -
Page 33: How To Reduce The Pumping Down Time And Achieve Better Vacuum Level
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 3. User should turn off the power to the plasma cleaner if the plasma cleaner is idle for more than 1 hour. 8.9 How to reduce the pumping down time and achieve better vacuum level? 1. -
Page 34: How To Reduce The Venting Time
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 8.10 How to reduce the venting time? Plasma cleaner chamber is vented through a solenoid valve with a small orifice. If the pressure on the venting port is at the atmospheric pressure, it will takes a long time for the chamber to be fully vented to the atmospheric pressure. -
Page 35: How To Improve The Gas Purity For Some Critical Applications
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 8.13 How to improve the gas purity for some critical applications. For samples that can’t be oxidized, such as the cleaning of reactive silver or copper bonding pads, it’s very important to make sure the plasma doesn’t have too much oxygen or water impurity. If the plastic or Teflon tubing is used to connect the gas port between the plasma cleaner and the compressed gas bottle, there is always slow gas leakage through the plastic and Teflon tubing;... -
Page 36: Process Uniformity In The Chamber
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 8.14 Process uniformity in the chamber. There are many factors that can impact the process uniformity. Uniformity can be influenced by the plasma radical production and recombination, gas transportation and sample loading effect. The gas comes in from the holes on the front right side of the chamber. -
Page 37: Chapter 9 System Settings
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Chapter 9 System settings System settings can be modified in the settings screen. Click the system button in the bottom right corner of the main screen to enter the system screen. Figure 15, system setting screen “Ignite plasma before... - Page 38 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 before cleaning starts” and below the “Upper limit pressure before cleaning starts”, recipe execution will also proceed to the next step. “Pressure stabilized criteria”. The system constantly evaluates the stability of the chamber pressure. If the pressure varies by less than the percentage specified in this tab within 5 seconds, the system will consider the pressure as stabilized.
- Page 39 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 saved in the memory. If the current plasma intensity reading is lower than the one saved in the memory, system will automatically start impedance retuning. Plasma intensity reading may vary a lot with gas purity and samples.
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Page 40: Chapter 10 Service And Troubleshooting
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 Chapter 10 Service and troubleshooting Please read through safety precautions in chapter 5 before performing any service on the machine. 10.1. The vacuum in the chamber gets worse and worse over time. How to improve the vacuum level? The most common issue reported by our customers is the deterioration of vacuum levels. -
Page 41: Plasma Fails To Ignite
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 10.3 Plasma fails to ignite. 1. If the plasma cleaner has been idle for a couple of hours, it might be hard to ignite remote plasma source, especially at low pulse duty ratio. The user can run a high power direct/immersion mode recipe for 1 minutes to warm up the system before carrying out low power plasma cleaning. -
Page 42: Recipe Execution Stuck In The Pumping Down State
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 10.5 Recipe execution stuck in the pumping down state. Check the “Upper limit pressure before cleaning starts” in the settings screen. If the background pressure in the sample chamber fails to be pumped to below the set value, the recipe will not start. Please wipe clean the front surface of the door o-ring. -
Page 43: Replace The Quartz Chamber
Revision: B3, Year 2020 10.9 Replace the quartz chamber. If quartz chamber is severely damaged, please send the plasma cleaner back to PIE Scientific for service. 10.10 Why pure oxygen plasma emission intensity is so low compared with argon and nitrogen plasma? How to set up a recipe for oxygen plasma? Oxygen is strongly electronegative. -
Page 44: If The Plasma Is Too Weak To Be Detected By The Plasma Sensor (Value Is Below 2), How To Let The Timer Start Counting Down And Run A Recipe
Viton and silicone o-ring is the ideal choice. If the o-ring needs to be replaced, please purchase size 350 (Standard Inch AS568) o-ring for Tergeo and Tergeo-EM plasma cleaner. The size of the o-ring for Tergeo-plus is 363 (Standard Inch AS568). Please refer to section 10.1 for clean and grease... -
Page 45: Why The Plasma Intensity Value Doesn't Change When It Reaches A Value Of 800 Or 1000
Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 10.15 Why the plasma intensity value doesn’t change when it reaches a value of 800 or 1000? In order to measure the low plasma emission intensity more accurately when the electronegative oxygen gas is used or when the pulse duty ratio is very low to generate very weak plasma, the gain of the plasma intensity sensor has been intentionally set to a high value. - Page 46 Tergeo plasma cleaner operator’s manual Revision: B3, Year 2020 10.19 How to replace the pressure sensor if the filament burned out? Depending on the model of the machine, it may have different pressure sensor installed in the system. It could be MKS 925 Micropirani (Part number 925-12020 from MKS Instruments), Stinger CVM211PBL from InstruTech Inc, or nAPG-LC RS485 NW16 (part number: D02691000) from Edwards Vacuum LLC.
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Questions and answers
How to perform electrical safety check
To perform an electrical safety check on the PIE Tergeo-EM plasma cleaner, follow these steps:
1. Verify Electrical Ratings – Ensure the power supply matches the required AC power of 100~230V, 50/60Hz.
2. Check Compliance Certificates – Confirm the system complies with IEC 61010-1:2010 electrical safety standards and has conformance certificates from UL/CSA 61010-1 (TUV Rheinland) and UL Japan for RF emission.
3. Inspect Power Connections – Examine the power cord and connections for any visible damage or loose connections.
4. Test Grounding – Ensure proper grounding of the equipment to prevent electrical hazards.
5. Check for Electrical Hazards – Look for exposed wires, damaged insulation, or signs of overheating.
6. Perform Functional Test – Power on the system and check that it operates correctly without unexpected shutdowns or faults.
7. Verify Safety Precautions – Follow all safety precautions outlined in the manual to prevent electrical risks.
If any issues are found, discontinue use and consult qualified personnel for repairs.
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I'm supposed to perform a 60-month electrical safety check but can't find in the manual on how to do it. Thanks