Accelerating Yield

Mechanics of High Voltage

Tyrie June 24, 2004

Introduction

Goal of presentation is not to make anyone an expert in the mechanical design of high voltage components or power supplies. This is a primer to increase knowledge base enough so you know what questions to ask when detailing a HV design solution. Single most important fact to remember: Consider the total solution. Understand all components involved in design.
Power supply Cabling HV Mechanical device (wafer at potential, detector at potential, flood gun, electrostatic lens, HV vacuum feedthrough).

HV Engineering Challenge

When designing insulating structures for vacuum devices, it is important to remember that each case is a unique problem. No simple set of rules provides the solution for every problem. For a practical solution the following parameters must be considered: geometry, material choice, surface preparation, degree of out gassing, rate and type (ac, dc or rf) of applied voltage, duration of electrical stress, temperature, and presence of radiation or charged particles. The external circuitry must also be considered. The breakdown of a gap is accompanied by the rapid dissipation of the stored capacitive energy of the system. The largest fraction of system capacitance is formed by the external circuitry. To minimize the destructive nature of an electrical discharge limit the stored energy and control its rate of dissipation. Design the power supplies and the cables with minimum capacitance. Insert a resistor in the HT line, 1-3k should

ELECTRODE MATERIAL SELECTION

Materials such as 304 stainless steel, titanium (T6Al4V) and molybdenum consistently produce stable electrodes. Copper and nickel electrodes are subject to instabilities. The resistance to corrosion such as oxidation is an important characteristic. The strong insulating film ~5nm thick on stainless steel versus the semi conductive oxide film on copper is an important characteristic which affects the behavior of micro-particles in HV gaps. The material should not be gassy.

UHV Vacuum Materials

(List from various government labs)
Acceptable Materials
304,304L,304LN,316,316L,321 SS Virgin Teflon (no colors added) Molybdenum OFHC copper Beryllium copper Mild steel Tungsten Rhenium Inconel Non porous ceramics such as: Alumina and Beryllia Macor machinable glass Synthetic Mica Braided fiber glass tubing-pure with no binders or colors

Unacceptable Materials
Brass Aluminum Zinc 302 and 306 series SS Lead Torlon , Vespel, PEK, etc. G-10, Micata, Bakalite, Plexiglass, Lexan Kapton, PVC, 5-minute epoxy, RTV Silicone rubber Plated and anodized connectors

The use of epoxies in general has to be very limited to the extent that they can be used to make a seal on a material that is difficult to seal by any other means. These epoxies must be specifically designed for use in vacuum with operating pressures in the low 10E-9 Torr range. The list is very short and any use must be on a case by case basis. (check Ablestik.com for epoxies) The use of Teflon coated wire should also be limited. Use Teflon coated wire with a very thin coating to help reduce the degas time after pump down. Out gas testing should test the material to 200C in UHV with RGA analysis. The material must show an out gassing rate < 1E-8 Torr-L/s to be accepted.

ELECTRODE SURFACE PREPARATION

The ideal electrode is polished, defect free, scratch free and void of adhered micro-particles. Mechanical polishing has been used for years to achieve the desired surface condition. Polish, using aluminabased diamond pastes, to a 0.25 m mirror finish. Attention to detail is important. Care must be exercised to clean, without scratching, the polished surface. It is extremely important to remove all traces of grease and polishing compound. Long periods of cleaning in an ultrasonic bath are necessary. Refer to the appropriate BKM cleaning procedures. Great care must also be taken to avoid re-contamination during handling and assembly.

ELECTRODE GEOMETRY (IN VACUUM)

Negative electrodes are more likely to initiate a discharge. Negative electrodes must be soft, meaning generously curved with no sharp edges. With electrodes in vacuum and at voltages around 10 kV radiuses should be on the order of 0.04 to 0.06 inch minimum, whereas at 20 kV radiuses should increase to 0.10 to 0.15 inch minimum. In vacuum and above 20 kV more care is necessary in the design. If the required voltage range of the electrode involves a polarity reversal, then what was the positive electrode becomes the more negative electrode. This could easily be a portion of the system that is at ground potential. This polarity reversal requires that the more negative, in this cast the grounded electrode, be designed with the same consideration as the original biased electrode. Wire attachment to the electrode is one of the more difficult challenges of an electrode design. Good electrode geometry can easily be compromised by poor wiring choice. Incorporate the lead connection in the lowest filed region. The majority of electrodes are circular in nature and attaching the lead where the field is generated by co-axial electrode is preferable to connection on a curved surface. Often times lead attachment requires a hole through an insulator, therefore special attention is required to shield triple points (vacuum, insulator, conductor joint).

ELECTRODE GAP (VACUUM)

The electrode gap geometry is important and should be designed to minimize the field stress within the gap. Safety factors of between 1.5x and 1.25x should be incorporated into the electrode gap design. For small gaps (d 0.5 mm) breakdown is normally dominated by field emission. Gaps (d 2 mm) it is voltage dependent. Large gap breakdown becomes dominated by micro-particle breakdown processes. The voltage supported by any gap is a non linear function above the transition region of 0.5 d 2.0 mm. The voltage breakdown Vb Kd where K = 40-45 kVm-1 and = 0.4-0.6 In equipment design, examine electrode geometries and analyze the field strength in every vacuum gap. The voltage gradient or maximum field strength of two parallel plates (neglecting edge effects) is the voltage divided by the spacing of the plates. However, if a field concentrator is placed on one of the plates, such as a hemisphere with radius much smaller than the spacing, the maximum field strength in the gap would increase by a factor of three. Refer to chapter 15 in the Handbook of Materials and Techniques for Vacuum Devices by Walter H. Kohl for various geometrical scenarios.

ELECTRODE GEOMETRY AND GAP (IN AIR)

(Bruce & Rowgowski ) Rowgowski)

Bruce profile shaped electrodes can support 32kVdc/cm in dry air at 1 atmosphere. Bruce developed a series of electrode shapes that approximated an ideal uniform field. The Bruce profile is a figure of revolution, starting with a flat plane in the center, with a sine curve used as a transition to a circular section at the edge. The idea is to have a large area of uniform field (2 flat plates) with a gradually increasing radius of curvature to the edge. The Bruce profile apparently wasn't originally developed with the intention of finding an analytically nice E field, but was an empirically derived method to reduce the edge effects.

Electrode Geometry Calculations

Choose appropriate geometry Calculate Field Strength for appropriate geometries

TRIPPLE POINT IN VACUUM

INSULATOR

SHEILDED TRIPPLE POINT JUNCTION ELECTRODE

The junction between an insulator, conductor and vacuum must be designed properly to avoid local field concentrations. The local field is enhanced by the presence of the dielectric properties of the insulator. Therefore the electrode / insulator design should provide for mechanical shielding of the triple point. This is accomplished by a reentrant electrode design. Surface breakdown in vacuum is associated with events at the triple point of the dielectric material, conductor and vacuum. With proper shielding of this junction can raise the surface breakdown by a factor of three or four. The magnitude of the field strength at this junction is proportional to the dielectric constant of the insulating material. Dielectric constant of vacuum = 1.

Vacuum (non UHV)

Refer to Paschen curves if designing electrodes for use other than in high vacuum. This is important during chamber pump down. The above Paschen curve relates breakdown voltage to pressure x gap distance. With the pressure in the range of 500 millitorr for air, a gap of 1 cm can breakdown at 350 volts. There is a non linear rise in electric strength or breakdown voltage as the gap spacing decreases. At atmospheric pressure a change in gap from 0.1 mm to 1 cm decreases the electric strength by a factor of three (~100kV/cm to ~32kV/cm). At 7.6 Torr pressure the same gap change decreases the electric strength by a factor of three hundred fifty (350kV/cm to 1 kV/cm).

HV POWER SUPPLIES AND CABLES

Power supply and cable designs should minimize the stored energy. This is accomplished by keeping the system capacitance as low as practical. Higher frequency switching supplies require smaller filter capacitors. Energy storage = Capacitance *Voltage2 HV power supplies typically use epoxy or silicon potting compounds for encapsulation of electronic components. These potted-up assemblies can have surface charging. Charge control is necessary to avoid micro discharging in the power supply which results in electron beam instabilities. Potting electronic parts in a closed conductive container is preferred as this will provide a means for charge control. At voltages 10 kV consider using Faraday cage design in the power supply to house floating power supplies. The Faraday cage design should be mechanically soft with no sharp corners. At these voltages the Faraday cage should be insulated from ground by potting the assembly. Surface charge control is also necessary in this situation. Attention to detail where wires penetrate the Faraday cage is necessary to avoid producing high field stress. Sharp edges like those from a simple punched hole should be avoided. Cable connectors are a weak link in the chain of HV components from the electron source to the power supply. Connectors with a safety factor of 1.5X operating voltage are preferred. HV connectors should have a convoluted surface path length to ground. When choosing connectors specify pin to pin standoff voltage as well as pin to shell (ground) standoff voltage. The connector inserts design should have mating surfaces in intimate contact forcing air from the gaps as they close during mating. This will eliminate corona in the connector. Corona in a connector will eventually cause a failure. Ground loops are problematic. A star ground system is preferred. Separate signal ground from chassis/system ground. Insure HV common/ground is separate.

INSULATORS IN VACUUM

Avoid plastic insulators or epoxy potting compounds in vacuum. Out gassing of these materials can lead to contamination of apertures in an electron gun or on a customers wafer. When an electron beam strikes a surface an interaction with hydrocarbons and other molecules on the vacuum surface occurs. The result is a staining of the surface, which is the formation of a deposited insulating layer from cracked molecules. Gradual build-up of insulating layers on apertures cause the electron beam to drift off of the target.

Staining of a surface from the Electron beam cracking contaminants on a surface

INSULATORS IN VACUUM (continued)

Terms to consider for voltage breakdown over insulating surfaces:

Vacuum breakdown (in the gap) Surface breakdown (along an insulator) Bulk breakdown (through the insulating material) Breakdown strength (volts/unit distance) Breakdown voltage (volts)

Use insulating materials with low dielectric constants to reduce field stress. Insure path length along the surface of the insulator is sufficient to prevent surface discharging along the insulator. 30 kV/inch path lengths along an insulator in air or vacuum are sufficient. At applied voltages above 20 kV be conservative by increasing path length to as long as practical. Temperature degrades the insulting quality of an insulator. Areas that are exposed to heat or bombardment from electrons or other radiation must be designed very conservatively. Protect ceramic insulating surfaces from direct line of sight of the electron beam. Charging of the insulator will cause deflection or distortion of the beam. Also premature discharging along the surface will result. Insure that the bulk breakdown of the insulating material is not exceeded. A figure of 200 volts/mil is a safe value for the dielectric strength for Al2O3. Quartz tubing has better insulating properties than extruded Al2O3 tube by a factor of two. Caution when using quartz tubing, this material cannot be in tension as it will break. Stressed parts my fail at a later time and are very shock sensitive when under tension. Note that any bending action places one portion of the tube in tension.

Rules of thumb & other thoughts

5 kV/mm field stress in vacuum gap. 30 kV/in along insulator surface. 200 volts/mil dielectric strength for alumina, Electrodes should be must be clean, preferably well out gassed. Avoid surface re-contamination during handling and assembly. HV electrodes require smooth, unscratched surfaces that are highly polished. Number 4 finish is usually specified. Judicious polishing only in areas with high field stress can save on part cost. Design insulators with a large safety factor to account for lifetime issues such as: surface degradation from handling, surface contamination build-up, exposure to charged particles. Minimize system capacitance / stored energy capability.

Design Examples

Redesign of ESX Flood Gun Lens

1) 2) 3) 4) Path length to ground along ceramic increased about 2X over presented design. Central lens held by clamp ring compressing ceramic. This is not an over constrained system. Clamp screw heads in a region of low field stress. Upper and lower lens elements axially positioning done off the O.D. of ceramic insulator. Wire lead brought out through side of ceramic insulator with soft geometry to minimize field stresses. No potting with torrseal is required.

Upper Lens Element

Wire Connection to Central Element

Central Lens Element Clamp Ring Central Lens Element

T. TYRIE 08/20/02

Lower Lens Element

ESX Lens 2 Field Gradient Simulation

(Simion 7.0)

Use field simulation software. Simion is a low cost ~$500.

~5.6kV/mm
(5kV/mm is max design rule)

08/15/02 T. Tyrie

More E -Field Simulation with Simion 7.0 E-Field

ELECTRIC FIELD POTENTIAL WITHIN A HOLE
Ground

Decrease in the electric field as a function of hole depth. Ratio of hole diameter to hole depth is key parameter to consider. 1 to 1 ratio seems good in calculation. For e-beam > 5 to 1 and 10 to 1 is optimum to avoid charging issues.
Electric Field Potential

-1000 volts

THE ELECTRIC FIELD POTENTIAL IS 99.99% THAT OF THE ELECTRODE AT A DEPTH OF ONE HOLE DIAMETER

ELECTRIC FIELD REDUCTION DOWN A HOLE

0 -930 -940 -950 -960 -970 -980 -990 -1000 -1010 Depth in Number of Hole Diameters 1 2 3

Different Approach

Center of Lens is made of one piece. Insulator is plated to form a conductor. The precision of the hole is better than a metal part.

50kV Ceramic Gun Insulator

13 copper or copper / beryllium pins x 0.090 in. diameter with nickel or gold plate. Large pins provide heat sink capability and conduct heat away through the cable / connector. 4-5/8 inch standard Conflat flange. ~5 in. path length along outside & ~4 in path length along inside of insulator. Rule of thumb path along insulator = 30kV/inch. ~2.5x safety factor. Wall thickness = 0.05 inch. Dielectric strength 250 volts/mil. @ 0.50 inch bulk breakdown = 125kV Max diameter = 2.9 inch Integrated cathode module mounting plate. HV shield electrode. Smooth geometry prevents discharging. HV shield electrode biased at HV common to minimize discharging impact on power supplies. Incorporates anti-corona design feature. Geometry minimizes problems from x-ray generation. Al2O3 insulator material, brazed assembly.

Triple joint shielded

Polished HV Shield Electrode

Simple Connector Problem

Standard 20 kV connector Standard UHV push-on connector 600 volt insulated Teflon wire Operating at ~6 kV Issue: discharging at insulator connector junction Insulation on wire has no insulating value Teflon adds to gas load Burr in set screw can act as field emitted Insulation forming a triple junction only enhances E-field increasing probability of breakdown. Solution: replace teflon coated wire with solid OFHC copper wire.

Carbon tracking from discharging

50 kV High Voltage Insulator Design

Internal wiring protected by Faraday Cage Faraday Cage Main insulator

External shield surrounding gun electrodes

Shielded Triple Point

Column with vacuum Issues

Limit use of epoxy. Torr seal does not harden unless baked (then still questionable). Wire insulation should be un-colored virgin Teflon with thin insulation coating to reduce pump down times. Single Kapton insulated wire is preferable over multi stranded Teflon insulated wire.

Cables & Connectors

Shell size inadequate for multi-pin 10kV operation

(micro discharging and bulk breakdown)

Shell size OK for single-pin 10kV operation

Convoluted surface eliminates charge migration across insulator surface

Good connectors to 10 kV but uncontrolled charging of exterior cable surface (no external shielding).

Insufficient pin to shell spacing Bulk breakdown is problematic

Vacuum Feedthrough

50kV design (pins to ground) Convoluted surface Al2O3 insulator Brazed assembly Pin to pin 10 kV Drawback is ceramic extends past shell Tapered silicon cable connector to ceramic feedthrough insulator displaces air in joint. Eliminates corona.

Detectors

Problem:

Kelvin probe mount. Minimum space. Restricted by existing design. Outside of probe floated at voltage. Considering epoxy to fasten probe. Out gassing properties of epoxy. Shear strength of epoxy. Calculate amount necessary for mechanical strength. Dielectric strength / determine minimum thickness to stand off voltage. Required surface path length across epoxy joint. Surface and bulk receptivity measured. Plan / design how epoxy will be placed in joint. Critical for assembly process. Have you exhausted every other possibility of fastening before willing to compromise vacuum???? Communication of key parameters of joint design to manufacturing. Notes on drawing.

Some questions to ask:

CHARGER

Discharging Issues

Problem

Discharging within the electron gun results in power supply failures. Equipment effected: ion gage controller, ion pump controller, high current lens supply and internal floating metering in the gun power supply. Manage stored energy in the gun cable Installed filter network to limit current surge during discharge. Installed surge suppressor power strips on support electronics. Installed both common mode and differential mode ferrites on cables. Limited transient currents from Gamma HV supply with series current limiting resistor an ferrites.

Solution

The attenuation of the filter is 250:1 before the .1 cap on the existing board and 1000:1 after the cap.