Operating Procedure for Using the 77-067 Digital Ion Gun Control with the 04-300 Ion Gun

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, the steps below are completed in the Ion Gun Control dialog box.

  1. Select the Ion Gun Control command from the System menu to display the Ion Gun Control dialog box.

  2. In the dialog box, make sure that the Beam Voltage and Emission Current values are both set to zero (0).

  3. In the dialog box, click on the On button to turn on the beam for the ion gun.

  4. Set the Emission Current to 25mA.

  5. Bleed in argon until a value of 10mPA to 15mPA is displayed in the Pressure area of the dialog box. This will coincide with approximately 2 x 10-7 torr if the gun is not differentially pumped, and 2 x 10-8 torr if the gun is differentially pumped.

  6. Click on the Standby button in the Beam area of the dialog box.

  7. Set the Beam Voltage to the desired value (3kV is the recommended maximum).

  8. Define the settings in the Raster area of the dialog box. A size of 8mm and a ratio of .65 are the typical values.

  9. Click on the checkbox “Set to Standby on Close” so that when you close the dialog box, the ion beam is turned off but the filament remains on when you close the dialog box.

  10. Close the dialog box.

The ion gun is now ready to sputter either automatically when you are performing depth profiles or when you use the Sputter command.

Note that if the ion gun dialog box is displayed while acquiring data, the pressure cannot be read and will display “----“.

Operating tips: