Determining Temperature Differential to Prevent Hardware Cross- Contamination in a Vacuum Chamber

摘要

When contamination-sensitive hardware must be tested in a thermal vacuum chamber, cross-contamination from other hardware present in the chamber, or residue from previous tests, becomes a concern. Typical mitigation strategies involve maintaining the temperature of the critical item above that of other hardware elements at the end of the test. A formula for relating the pumping speed of a chamber, the surface area of contamination sources, and the temperatures of the chamber, source, and contamination-sensitive items has been developed.