John Wong wrote:

Laura Lambert wrote:  Thursday, September 15, 2016, 16:23 Target container contains 487 discs of SiC  Target packed length = 16cm.  Mass of SiC(green)  = 58.8795g Container is wrapped with 1x heatshield around each side of cooling fins; no end caps are inserted yet - coated spring inserted both sides to hold discs in place. Sintering temp = 1800C Chamber is currently being pumped down.   Friday, September 16, 2016, 10:50 Tapped up manually to 50A Waited ~1hr , vacuum stable. IGP1 = 1.24e-5 Torr Initiating auto-ramp at 0.2A/min and 0.1A/min for the TGHT and TBHT respectively. TGHT max = 500A.  TBHT max at 230A.  Slope on OMEGA = 1.15  Monday, September 19, 2016, 10:53 OMEGA = 1230C TGHT = 360A, 4.75V TBHT = 204A, 2.68V IGP1 = 5.3e-6 Torr Increasing ramping rate to 1.0A/min and 0.5A/min for the TGHT and TBHT respectively.  Monday, September 19, 2016, 11:57 OMEGA = ~1300C TBHT = 230A, 3.16V TGHT = 409A, 5.55V Lowering ramping rate to 0.2A/min while vaccum high IGP1 = 3.05e-5 Torr  Monday, September 19, 2016, 13:22 OMEGA = 1350C TGHT = 425A, 5.82V IGP1 = 1.97e-5 Torr Stepping ramping rate back up to 1.0A/min    Monday, September 19, 2016, 18:24 Measuring the temperature on the SiC is difficult due to the changing in emissivity as the temperature goes up.  So, I will use the MIKRON to measure the temperature on the Ta surface near the end of the tube and OMEGA for measuring the inside.   Using the analogue pyrometer, the temperature on the Ta surface at the end of the tube was measured at around ~1450C; this temperature match the temperature on the Mikron at slope 0.98 (as usual).  To match it with OMEGA, I changed the slope to 1.04 since this measurement is taking readings on the  inside of the tube and on the SiC material.    Note:  The measurements are NOT the absolute temperature.  These are relative temperature measurements  which give some guideline where the target current should be at for the sintering process.  Please plot the temp vs current as the TGHT is being ramped up.  At some point, the windows will get coated and the measurement is no longer reliable.   The plot will be used to give an estimation of the current for 1800C.

 Tuesday, September 20, 2016, 15:18

there was a temperature fluctuation resulting in the MIKRON no longer matching the readout on the OMEGA

this prompted another change in the slope on the OMEGA to 1.08

TGHT was then tapped up manually to 600A/ 1800C

will remain at this max setpoint for a few days before ramping down

see attachment for raw data

 Wednesday, September 21, 2016, 11:34

temperatures dropped a small amount overnight.

tapped up manually to 625A/ 1810C

still no coating on window.

see attachment for updated raw data