FUNDAMENTALS OF

VACUUM GENERATION
 CONTENTS

Foundations of vacuum

Concepts, parameters and terminology

Classification of pump technologies

Considerations in pump selection and operation

Summary

2
 FOUNDATIONS OF
VACUUM

The subject and concept of vacuum has stimulated many great minds for millennia.
Aristotle’s view-point from the 4th century BC that ‘nature abhors a vacuum’ and as
such that vacuum was a ‘logical impossibility’ was widely held until the dawn of the
age of enlightenment in the early 17th century. Indeed, the creation of the first verifiable
vacuum, made in Italy and attributed to Gasparo Berti* in 1640, was part of the scientific
revolution which prefaced the wider social, intellectual and philosophical reasoning of
the period.

The evolution of vacuum science, both theoretical and practical, has paralleled many
major scientific achievements including the development of the gas laws, the discovery
of the electron and the highly sophisticated large scale vacuum systems of the
gravitational wave interferometers.

The vacuum industry has developed to become an annual market worth more than
$10B. Today the application of controlled vacuum environments is a critical enabler
for an enormous range of technologies, including food packaging, steel degassing,
pharmaceutical development, microelectronics fabrication, medical imaging and
fundamental particle physics.

A thorough understanding of the underlying principles and hardware available is crucial

for all those involved in vacuum science and the choice and correct usage of a system’s
vacuum pump(s) and scheme is essential. Indeed, vacuum pumps can be considered to
be the ‘engine’ of the vacuum world.

*It may surprise some readers not to be Torricelli! 3

To create a perspective, practical vacuum achievable are from 103 to < 10-12 mbar – a dynamic
range of 15 orders! There are few disciplines of science facing such a corresponding range
and challenge of associated physical concepts.

The selection process for pumps therefore necessitates a familiarity, appreciation and
understanding of the basic principles and terminology of vacuum science which this
article seeks to address.

A vacuum is described as a space in which the pressure is below surrounding atmospheric

pressure. Within a gas the total pressure is defined as the rate of transfer of the normal
component of momentum of the constituting molecules to a plane per unit area. The
SI unit of pressure being the Pascal (Pa) which is the pressure exerted by a force of one
Newton perpendicular to a plane surface of 1 m2.

The standard atmosphere is the pressure for the normal state of a gas at temperature
of 0oC.

By definition:

1 standard atmosphere = 1.01325 x 105 Pa

= 1013.25 mbar
= 760 Torr

N.B. increasingly the unit hPa is used where 1 hPa = 1mbar

A common scheme of the vacuum range is shown below:

Low or Rough Vacuum (LV) Atmosphere to 1 mbar

Medium or Fine Vacuum (MV) 1 to 10-3 mbar

High Vacuum (HV) 10-3 to 10-7 mbar

Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) 10-7 to 10-12 mbar

Extreme High Vacuum (XHV) < 10-12 mbar

4
 CONCEPTS,
PARAMETERS AND
TERMINOLOGY

In this section we discuss the important vacuum concepts to illustrate how they
impact the mechanism, choice and use of vacuum pumps.

The vacuum environment is essentially a gas at a reduced related pressure. Theories of

vacuum must therefore account for the laws which have been shown to hold true for
gases. One form of the equation of state of ideal gases is:
P = n ko T (1)
where P is the pressure, ko is Boltzmann’s constant, T is the absolute thermodynamic
temperature and n is the number density.

The number density is the number of molecules (N) per unit volume (V):
n = N/V (2)
and n = 2,5 x 10 x P per cm at 20 C where P is in mbar as illustrated below:
16 -3 o

-3
Pressure (mbar) Number density (molecules/cm )

3 19
10 2.5 x 10
16
1 2.5 x 10
-6 10
10 2.5 x 10
-10 6
10 2.5 x 10
5
Aside - a more convenient expression of equation (1) is shown below, derived using ko =
Ro/NA where nm is the number of moles of the gas (nm = N/NA), Ro is the gas constant and
NA is Avogadro’s number and nm is the number of moles of the gas (nm = N/NA),
PV = nm Ro T (3)
It can be seen that the product PV is proportional to the number of moles present and
equals the ‘quantity’ q of the gas. This important concept will be discussed further below.
Even at low pressures there are still a very large number of entities (molecules) allowing
significant statistical analysis. Kinetic Theory gives several relevant outcomes for
vacuum science:

i. The mean thermal velocity is given by

= (8RoT/πM)1/2 (4)

where M is the molar mass of the gas.

For example, at 20oC, for a helium molecule is 1,245 m/s compared to 470 m/s for
nitrogen and 394 m/s for Argon.

ii. We can view gases as moving at random and relatively high velocities with
collisions occurring between them as shown below

This allows us to consider the concept of mean free path which is defined as the mean
distance travelled by molecules between collisions:
= (21/2 n π dm2)-1 (5)
Where dm is the diameter representing a molecular ‘sphere’, at the start of the HV
regime the mean free path for nitrogen at room temperature being ~ 7 cm.

6
Additionally, we can define the impingement rate J, as the number of molecules
intersecting or impinging on a vacuum surface where:
J = 0.25 n (6)
Extending this analysis we develop the monolayer formation time tmono which is the time
take for the formation of one (uniform) adsorbed layer of gas on a vacuum surface.

These parameters are summarised in the table below (for nitrogen at 20oC)

Pressure (mbar) Impingement rate (cm-2.s-1) Mean free path Monolayer formation time

103 3 x 1019 66 nm 3 ns

1 3 x 1016 0.066 mm 3 ms

10-3 3 x 1013 6.6 cm 3 ms

10-6 3 x 1010 66 m 3s

10-10 3 x 106 660 km 8 hours

iii. Flowing gas

We define the flow rate or throughput Q of a gas as the quantity/unit time

Q = PV = PS (7)

where speed S volume rate and Conductance C, is a measure of the ease of gas flow
between two regions with a pressure difference of ΔP of such that:

C = Q/ΔP (8)

The effective or net pump speed can be significantly affected by the conductance of
connecting components.

7
 Conductance Pump

C S
Pumping speed can be combined with a
conductance in the same way as conductances
in series

1 1 1
= +
Snet S C

This graph below shows the restrictive effect of a 1m length NW40 connecting pipe on
the net pump speed (Sup) of various speed turbomolecular pumps (Sdown):

8
iv. Flow regimes

We have developed a picture of gas molecules moving randomly at high velocities with
a wide range of defining parameter values across the vacuum spectrum. To deliberately
induce flow i.e. to create a pumping effect, we need to exploit and influence these.

Reconsidering the concept of mean free path we can see that for a typical vacuum
component dimension d of 7 cm (e.g. the diameter of an ISO63 pipe) molecules will be
more likely to collide with other molecules than with the pipe wall but decreasingly so
as the pressure reduces to 10-3 mbar.

• We introduce the concept of the Knudsen number Kn = /d: as shown below, as

vacuum improves, collisions within the volume become relatively few compared with
surface collisions
• The ratio of surface to volume collisions can be shown for a box to be ~ 3 x Kn allowing
us to define flow regimes as below

Kn>> 1, >>d Kn<<1, ><<d

Molecule-surface Molecule-molecule
collisions dominate collisions dominate

Flow Regime

Molecular Transitional Continuum

Typically < 10-3 mbar Increasing Pressure

Typically > 1 mbar
The understanding of flow types is a fundamental requirement in the design of vacuum
pumps and systems, both in terms of the different mechanisms employed to create
controlled gas flow at different pressures and also the optimisation of system design.

9
 CLASSIFICATION
OF PUMP
TECHNOLOGIES

We have seen that a consequence of the kinetic nature of gases is that there are different
flow types across the vacuum spectrum and that these are exploited accordingly in the
design of suitable pumping mechanisms for given vacuum and process conditions.
Much has, and will, be written about specific pump types but the diagram below is a
scheme representing most common pump classifications and families.

Vacuum Pumps

Gas Transfer Capture

Positive Kinetic Cryogenic

Displacement Ion Getter
Non Evaporable Getter
Wet Regenerative
Sublimation
Liquid Ring Turbomolecular
Reciprocating Rotary
Rotary Vane Molecular drag
Rotary Piston
Diaphragm
Screw
Piston Fluid Entrainment
Dry
Claw Diffusion Pump
Roots Vapour Booster
Screw
Scroll
10
The first distinction is between ‘Gas Transfer’ and ‘Capture’ pump types. The former
relying on the induced or biased flow of gas to create compression and hence a pumping
action and further sub-divided to Positive Displacement pumps and Kinetic pumps.

i. Positive Displacement pumps operate in the LV and MV ranges and exhaust

to atmospheric pressure (and by convention designated in m3/h or cfm); hence
they are termed ‘primary’ mechanisms operating in continuum and transitional
flow. An important distinction also exists between ‘wet’ pumps where oil is used
in the pumps’ swept volume and ‘dry’ pumps where there is no oil.

Vacuum Chamber

Positive Displacement Pump

Gas is trapped, isolated, moved and
Vacuum Pump
compressed

Atmosphere or
next pump

ii. Kinetic pumps are used for HV and lower pressures where molecule-surface
collisions dominate and where high speed rotors or supersonic vapour jets are
used to effectively bias the direction of molecules within a pumping pathway
(by convention they are designated in l/s). Kinetic pumps require a supporting
primary pump since they do not themselves exhaust to atmospheric pressure.

Vacuum Chamber

Kinetic Pump Principle

Momentum is imparted to gas
Vacuum Pump
e.g. TMPs and ODPs

Next pump

11
Capture pumps are non-mechanical configurations exploiting the phenomena of cryo-
sorption and gettering and are mainly employed in the HV and lower pressure ranges.
They do not need a continuously supporting ‘primary’ pump but operation requires the
establishment of a suitable low pressure.

The operating ranges of major pumps are shown in the chart below with an
indication of the order of magnitude of speed. (Green represents dry and red
represents oil/fluid mechanisms)

A more detailed description of the pumping principles of each mechanism will be

discussed in a separate article.

12
 CONSIDERATIONS
IN PUMP SELECTION
AND OPERATION

The selection of pumps is a crucial factor in ensuring the successful commissioning and
optimised performance of a vacuum system. It is useful to break this in to two sections:
pumps sizing and pump types, though in practice there is overlap between these
two considerations.

The size or capacity of pumps required depends generally on the dimensions of the
chamber and the desired time to evacuate it to a target or ultimate pressure. However gas
loads, leaks and process reactions must be considered, as must materials of construction
and internal fixtures.

Leakage
Outgassing

Original ‘bulk’ gas

Permeation

Process load
Back streaming
Back migration

Diffusion

13
There are occasions when the system itself places an effective upper ‘envelope’ on pump
size, for example as discussed earlier when pipe conductance restricts the net achievable
speed of a pump; in this case there is no benefit from using a larger pump capacity.

The pump types can fit with the overall design philosophy of the system. For example,
are oil-sealed rotary vane pumps (cheaper) preferable to scroll (oil-free) pumps? Or is
system cleanliness maybe more important? Budget, with respect to capital expenditure,
utilities and maintenance costs, is often a primary consideration; investing in high quality,
reputable brands with good after-sales support is beneficial for optimised performance
from the commissioning of a project to its long-term operation.

Safety is a paramount concern both in terms of safe operation of the pumps and system
integrity. Do flammable, toxic, pyrophoric, dust hazards and corrosive materials and/
or reaction process hazards exist? Is there over-pressure protection? Are the pumps
integrated to be fail-safe? What safety/regulatory standards should the pumps meet? etc.

Other considerations include pump size, accessibility, radiation tolerance, magnetic

field compatibility, noise and vibration limits, shock resistance, gas compatibility,
operating temperature range, dissipated heat load, communication protocols and
vapour processing.

Designers will have many other considerations and preferences when specifying and
choosing pumps – gaining the input and experiences from colleagues and vacuum
equipment manufacturers is always beneficial. A more detailed look into pros and cons
of each pump mechanisms and applications fit will be covered in separate articles.

14
 SUMMARY

In this article we have discussed some of the fundamentals and basic principles of
vacuum science; illustrated by their relevance to pumping technologies and the basics
of pump selection. There is much greater depth available for each of these topics which
will be developed. Ideas for future article topics will be gratefully received.

The Vacuum Science World Team

CONTACT US VIEW OUR SITE

15