Invited Paper VT-TuM9
How We’ve Learned More & More About Less and Less So That Now We Know a Whole Lot About Nearly Nothing - Vacuum Measurement Over the Years
Not only have the instruments used to monitor, measure and analyze vacuum evolved over the years, but the terminology has also undergone change. So herein I attempt to create a perspective of where we were in ancient times before I came on the vacuum scene, and continue through the subsequent half century to the present. I start with a requisite but brief description of a “vacuum”, then compare the various units of measure, their utility, and the wide variety of tools we once employed and currently employ to characterize the vacuum environment. In addition, I relate how the requirements of various vacuum processes have driven instrumentation design.