Leak Testing
Many semiconductor manufacturing equipment operate under high vacuum and their built-in components require high integrity to leaks. Cleanpart is equipped with various leak testing technologies, the most efficient being the Helium testing
Benefits
Cleanpart locations are equipped with modern leakage-test tools and test benches. Under the supervision of experienced technicians, we can offer
- Fully tested components and warrantied operation when reinstalled
- Reduced equipment maintenance time through the installation of plug & play components
- Reduced downtime and corrective maintenance
Properties
- Leak measurement: helium leak rates 10 -9 mbar.ls-1
- Leak measurement by pressure drop: 1 mT/min
A majority of our customers have components and assemblies that operate with an under- or over-pressure of various fluids.
These can be temperature-regulated fluid circuits, or assemblies that operate under ultra-high vacuum conditions. In any of these cases, our customers need to be sure that their components are leak-free when they come back from our sites. Therefore our sites have leak-testing equipment to test the sealing capability of these sensitive components.
One useful technology is the helium leak detector. The component is placed in a vacuum where small quantities of helium are sprayed around the component to be tested for leaks. Helium, being a very small molecule, will penetrate the component areas where leaks are present (sealing area, defective O-rings, etc.) and it is then detected by the leak detector spectrometer. The helium leak detector can also work oppositely: the component gets pressurized by helium and the spectrometer is used to detect escaping helium molecules (sniffing mode).
Our sites also have other types of detectors that are able to detect fluid leaks by pressure-drop monitoring or by means of an automated routine that will pressurize and/depressurize specific components in sequence.
The ultimate goal is to provide a tight, working component to our customers that will operate until the scheduled maintenance period.