Fabricationand Characterization of Novel Si-Based Standard Leak with Controllable Conductance:An Experimental Study

A novel standard-leak with controllable molecular flow conductance was developed, comprising two glycol bonded Si-chips with gas inlet/outlet holes:one has surface micro-fluidic channels (~1 μm deep) fabricated by lithography and the other serves as the top-cover.The conductance can be well-controlled by adjusting the size/number of micro-channels.The constant conductance via the novel Si-based standard-leak, installed between two F35 flanges and sealed with indium gasket, was characterized with helium leak detector, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy.The measured results show that the new Si-based standard-leak is capable of providing a constant conductance of helium molecular flow in the up-stream pressure range from high vacuum up to 30000 Pa.The measured and calculated results were found to be in fairly good agreement with a relative error of approximately 22.2%.