Paper VT-TuA12
Thermal Management of Temperature Controlled Capacitive Diaphragm Gauges

Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 5:20 pm, Room 205

We present results from our thermal management studies for INFICON’s new, innovative family of SKY digital capacitive diaphragm vacuum gauges which covers a temperature range from controlled 45°C to hot 200°C as well as full-scales from 1000 Torr to 100 mTorr. A wide range of interface configurations is made possible by a flexible gauge power and communication interface platform. The heart of the design is a new programmable heater architecture that surrounds the high precision ceramic measurement cell and as well controls the temperature gradient between the gauge and the flange. Much thought has been put into heat distribution, material choice and mechanical design in order to achieve a compact and robust design that will provide stable measuring conditions while keeping electronics and software protected and functional in hostile process environments. We present results from our thermal management design studies, complemented by relevant performance characteristics of the gauges from validation experiments.