A turbomolecular pump and method and apparatus for controlling the pressure in a process chamber using such a pump is disclosed. The turbomolecular comprises: a rotor comprising a plurality of blades on a rotatable shaft; a control motor for driving the rotatable shaft; wherein the control motor is sized to output a power that is more than three times larger than a power required to drive the shaft at a constant velocity that is sufficiently high to provide an exhaust pressure of 5 millibars.

A thread groove pump portion, which is an exhaust element, is structured such that a Siegbahn structure is attached onto a cylindrical thread, and such that respective parts are connected to each other at this attachment section. A flow channel of the Siegbahn portion and a flow channel of the cylindrical thread (the thread groove pump portion) are connected to each other so as to substantially form a right angle when viewed from an axis direction of the vacuum pump, thus, the flow channel of the Siegbahn portion and the flow channel of the thread groove pump portion are connected to each other. the length of a compression flow channel of the thread groove pump portion can be increased in a radial direction due to the connected Siegbahn portion.

The present invention relates to a pumping system to generate a vacuum (SP), comprising a main vacuum pump which is a claw pump (3) having a gas suction inlet (2) connected to a vacuum chamber (1) and a gas discharge outlet (4) leading into a gas evacuation conduit (5) in the direction of a gas exhaust outlet (8) outside the pumping system. The pumping system comprises a non-return valve (6) positioned between the gas discharge outlet (4) and the gas exhaust outlet (8), and an auxiliary vacuum pump (7) connected in parallel to the non-return valve. In a pumping method by means of this pumping system (SP), the main vacuum pump (3) is started up in order to pump the gases contained in the vacuum chamber (1) and to discharge these gases through its gas discharge outlet (4), simultaneously to which the auxiliary vacuum pump (7) is started up. Moreover the auxiliary vacuum pump (7) continues to pump all the while that the main vacuum pump (3) pumps the gases contained in the vacuum chamber (1) and/or all the while that the main vacuum pump (3) maintains a defined pressure in the vacuum chamber (1).

A vacuum pump comprises: a rotor provided with multiple stages of rotor blades; a base including a ball bearing configured to rotatably support the rotor; an outer cylinder covering the rotor and connected to the base; and a control device including an electronic circuit having a heat generation element. The control device is provided in contact with the outer cylinder.

A drag pump for pumping gas and a set of vacuum pumps including the drag pump are disclosed. The drag pump comprises: a rotor configured to rotate within a stator component and to drive a gas to be pumped from a gas inlet to a gas outlet; magnetic bearings for rotatably mounting the rotor within the pump; wherein at least a portion of the rotor and stator component configured to contact the gas to be pumped are configured for operation at temperatures above 130 C.

In the turbo molecular pump, at least one of the multiple stages of the rotor blades and the multiple stages of the stator blades is configured to satisfy any one of a first condition of Xout<Xc and Xin<Xc, a second condition of .Math.XcXin>Xc>Xout where =1.04, or a third condition of Xin<Xc<Xout.Math.Xc where =1.04.

A vacuum pump has, in at least either a stator disc to be disposed or a rotating disc to be disposed, a Siegbahn type molecular pump portion in which a spiral-shaped groove with a ridge portion and a root portion is engraved (disposed), and is structured to ensure high conductance at a returning flow channel formed at the outer periphery (outside) of the Siegbahn type molecular pump portion. This structure is created by a communicating portion (a groove portion, a slit) formed on each rotating disc, or an oblique plate disposed on the stator disc and the communicating portion formed on the rotating disc. The communicating portion, groove portion, and slit are configured to have concave shapes, a concave portion is provided by engraving a groove radially inward from an outer diameter portion (toward a side of a shaft of the vacuum pump) in the rotating disc (or stator disc).

A gas pump and processes for preparing the gas pump are presented. The gas pump includes a bottom Holweck stage with internal heaters for cleaning deposits resulting from exhausting gases from a semiconductor manufacturing chamber. One example gas pump includes a turbomolecular stage on a top section of the gas pump and a Holweck stage below the turbomolecular stage. The Holweck stage comprises a rotor element, a stator element with an opening in the center, and one or more heaters. The opening has a substantially cylindrical shape and an inside surface with a plurality of grooves separated by threads. Each heater is situated on a surface of one of the plurality of grooves. The heaters may be turned on to clean the deposits accumulated on the gas pump during the processing of a substrate.

A vacuum pump includes: a rotating portion and a stator portion between which an internal flow path is formed; an exhaust mechanism which sends gas from a suction port toward an outlet port through the internal flow path; and a main sensor for detecting that a deposited material has reached a prescribed thickness at a detection object position of the internal flow path, wherein the main sensor includes at least a pair of electrodes disposed in the internal flow path at an interval corresponding to the prescribed thickness, and a capacitance detection circuit which is connected to the pair of electrodes and which detects a capacitance between the pair of electrodes, and the capacitance detection circuit detects that a deposited material in the internal flow path has reached the prescribed thickness on the basis of a drop in an increase rate of the capacitance.

A vacuum pumping arrangement comprises a first pump which has a first inlet and a first outlet. The first inlet is fluidly connected to a first common pumping line. The first common pumping line includes a plurality of first pumping line inlets each of which is fluidly connectable to a least one process chamber within a group of process chambers that form a semiconductor fabrication tool. The vacuum pumping arrangement also includes a reserve pump which has a reserve inlet and a reserve outlet. The reserve inlet is selectively fluidly connectable to each process chamber within the group of process chambers that form the semiconductor fabrication tool. The vacuum pumping arrangement additionally includes a controller which is configured to selectively fluidly isolate the pump from one or more given process chambers and selectively fluidly connect the reserve pump with the said one or more given process chambers.