Design and fabrication of an electronic system for simultaneous measurement of pressure and temperature in vacuum deposition systems

This paper described a simple automated instrumentation and measurement system that was designed to offer a more reliable and fast method of measuring process parameters: temperature and pressure, in thin film deposition systems. The designed computer based measuring system was based on thermocouple type K temperature sensor, MP20C-01-F2 pressure sensor, parallel port for interfacing and LabVIEW driver for accessing temperature and pressure data. The system was able to measure process parameter: temperature and pressure simultaneously when implemented in Edward auto 306 magnetron sputtering system and stored their values in a computer memory and retrieved at operator’s will. It had a temperature and a pressure range of 0 to 3000 oC and 0 to 1.01 x103 mbar, respectively and temperature error of ± 1 oC. However, the designed system recorded varied pressure errors. In higher vacuum, pressure range of 1 to 1x10-2 mbar, the error was ± 1x10-2 mbar and in the lower range of 1x10-4 to 1x10-5 mbar, the error of 1x10-5 mbar was observed. These errors were within acceptable range and therefore, the system is viable to be used in thin film deposition systems to automate the measurement of process parameters: temperature and pressure to achieve high quality thin films.