[3dem] plasma cleaner

[Patricia Grob PhD]

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
URL: cryoem.berkeley.edu
Email: pgrob at berkeley.edu



> On Jan 24, 2023, at 2:43 PM, Christopher Winkler <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
> 
> phone: 434-924-8210
> 
> fax: 434-924-5069
> 
> egelman at virginia.edu <mailto:egelman at virginia.edu>
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