Manufacturing advantages for remote control of medium current ion implant systems

The advantages of remote control of the existing ion implant systems will be discussed. Factors for consideration are, in the order of importance, radiation, maintenance, and environmental control. By removing the controls and monitors from the equipment, operating personnel are moved from a potential radiation area to a radiation-free area and operation can now be classified as 'non-radiation' workers. All system maintenance is performed in the equipment core area without disrupting either the clean room equipment or adjacent equipment. For the system operating in a maintenance mode, the controls rotate 900 into the equipment core area. The wafer load and machine control areas are isolated from the clean room via doors and sliding windows. The remote control modification replaces hand-driven leak valves and control potentiometers with motor drives. The source parameters located at high voltage and previously observed by the operator through a lead window are now monitored by a closed circuit TV system and displayed at the control console. (orig.)