Ultra Precise Enclosure for emerging Nanotechnology

Most recently iE was contacted by a nanotechnology company for an Enclosure for a yet to be revealed project. In addition to .010ºC temperature stability control achieved by iE on the previous projects this new customer requested spatial uniformity across a 3m x 2m area of ±0.020ºC at the process height. iE designed a movable enclosure with a remote Environmental Control Unit containing a fan impellor with external motor, a TEHE with associated water pump and piping, and electrical components therefore removing those vibration and heat sources from the critical chamber. The movable enclosure allows for safe and easy assembly around the customer’s multi-ton custom instrument. Temperature stability and uniformity is monitored by an array of temperature probes placed in a grid at the ceiling diffuser level and is feed into iE’s control computer that then controls the output to iE’s TEHE providing .01ºC control to the air entering the chamber. To improve temperature uniformity across the 3m x 2m zone of interest iE developed a diffusion grid with a segmented re-heater system. NIST traceable probes with ±0.0005ºC accuracy placed at the process level provide temperature data which iE’s PAC uses to fine tune the air temperature for each region as the air moves through the individual diffusers/heater assemblies and the slightly cooler than setpoint air is re-heated by the diffusers. This arrangement of a iE’s typical precise temperature control via TEHE and water feed coils with a re-heat diffusion grid allowed iE to surpass the specification for ± 0.020ºC spatial uniformity, achieving a temperature spatial uniformity range of 0.019ºC during testing following installation at the customer facility around the instrument over the 3m x 2m critical area while achieving a temperature stability of ±0.0045ºC. In a smaller area of 3m x .5m the Enclosure provides a temperature spatial uniformity range of 0.012ºC and a temperature stability of ±0.0045ºC.