[3dem] plasma cleaner

Fri Feb 3 10:04:16 PST 2023

Hi Ed,

We have Pelco EasiGlow, a Quorum GloQube, a Tergeo PIE scientific plasma cleaner and an old Cressington 208 unit in Leeds.

Bottom line is I really really like the GloQube for the dual chamber for glow discharge in air/vapour (we have several users who get good use of the second chamber for amylamine). We have it on a scroll pump so they cycle length is a bit long but its workable. This is the most commonly used system for our cryoEM users.

The Pelco units are mostly used for negative stain here, I found them personally to be a little unpredictable for cryoEM but this could be a system specific thing (or a me thing..). Cheap and cheerful. Users are forever chipping the glass but you can repair with resin easily enough.

We tested the Tergeo PIE system and Gatan Solarus when we purchased a system to work in defined gas mixes. The  tergeo PIE performed well in testing in our hands (as well/better than the Solarus II), and subsequently, so we are very happy with it for cryoEM applications. And of course it is much cheaper. Also gets some use from our friends in material sciences. Worst thing about it is the name...

Despite the options available, for my own personal single particle grids I would still tend to use use the Cresssington 208 (or the GloQube).

Happy to share quotes/recipes if this is helpful for anyone.

Best wishes
Becky
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Rebecca Thompson (She/her)
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On 25 Jan 2023, at 17:51, Patricia Grob PhD <pgrob at berkeley.edu<mailto:pgrob at berkeley.edu>> wrote:

Hello Ed,

We got a Tergeo EM (PIE Scientific) plasma cleaner when our Solarus went down 4 or 5 years ago and we have been very happy with it. It is more affordable and it has been running without fail or repairs ever since.

Patricia

_________________________________
Patricia Grob, Ph.D.
Research Specialist
Nogales Lab
HHMI at UC Berkeley
Molecular & Cell Biology Department / QB3,
Stanley Hall #742
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-3220
Phone: (510)666-3335 Fax: (510)666-3336
E.M. suite B307: (510)666-3339
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On Jan 24, 2023, at 2:43 PM, Christopher Winkler <microwink at gmail.com<mailto:microwink at gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey Ed,

We went through a similar cost benefit analysis of plasma cleaners after our Solarus RF board failed. We went with one of the more basic plasma cleaners partly due to budget, partly due to the simplicity of operation of the more basic units, and partly due to the simplicity of design of the basic units. As you point out, the cost of a "simple" cleaner is 1/4 to 1/3 of the Solarus II. The Solarus was pretty easy to operate and the ability to save recipes is nice, but the more basic plasma cleaners are even simpler--you basically toggle a switch to start or stop the cleaner. There is no ability to save a recipe on our cleaner but we only had a few saved recipes on our Solarus that were routinely used. It's not hard to adjust time and power on the basic units. Most importantly for me, the more basic cleaners forego the TMP for a basic dry scroll pump so there are no diaphragm pumps to rebuild or turbo oil bearings to swap, and there's no painful teardown of the system to access the vacuum systems. The poorer vacuum is fully sufficient to generate a good quality plasma and I've not really seen much of a difference in cleaning performance--the new "simple" model does a good job of cleaning and removing hydrocarbon contamination (we don't use it for glow discharging or treating grid surfaces, so I can't comment on that).

A downside of the basic cleaner is that it only uses one process gas at a time, so you cannot switch between argon and oxygen mixtures or hydrogen like the Solarus. This is not a problem for our application but it's something to consider.

Happy to discuss specifics off of the listserv,
Chris

On Tue, Jan 24, 2023 at 5:17 PM Egelman, Edward H (ehe2n) <egelman at virginia.edu<mailto:egelman at virginia.edu>> wrote:
We have a Gatan Solarus that is failing, and are thinking about replacements. The newer Solarus II is from 5-10 times more expensive than the simplest plasma cleaners out there. Does anyone have any comparisons to justify this very high price tag?
Thanks,
Ed

Edward Egelman
Harrison Distinguished Professor,
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics
University of Virginia
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