Method and system for the determination of volumes of vacuum chambers and equilibrium times for a vaccuum system

A method for modeling a pulse duration that a sample is etched in a pulsed vacuum system having a pump that is in controllable fluid communication with a dump chamber this is in controllable fluid communication with an etching chamber that is in controllable fluid communication with an expansion chamber, the method comprising:

• partitioning the pulsed vacuum system into a first subsystem comprising the pump, the dump chamber, and the etching chamber and a second subsystem comprising the etching chamber and the expansion chamber;
• separately modeling the first subsystem and the second subsystem using an energy balance technique;
• and
• determining, by a processor, the pulse duration to be used in the etching chamber based on the modeling.

A system for modeling a pulse duration that a sample is etched in a pulsed vacuum system having a pump that is in controllable fluid communication with a dump chamber this is in controllable fluid communication with an etching chamber that is in controllable fluid communication with an expansion chamber, the system comprising:

• one or more memory devices storing instructions;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the one or more memory devices and configured to execute the instructions, the one or more processors to:
• partition the pulsed vacuum system into a first subsystem comprising the pump, the dump chamber, and the etching chamber and a second subsystem comprising the etching chamber and the expansion chamber;
• separately model the first subsystem and the second subsystem using an energy balance technique;
• and
• determine the pulse duration to be used in the etching chamber based on the modeling.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions which, when executed on a processor, perform a method for modeling a pulse duration that a sample is etched in a pulsed vacuum system having a pump that is in controllable fluid communication with a dump chamber this is in controllable fluid communication with an etching chamber that is in controllable fluid communication with an expansion chamber, the method comprising:

• partitioning the pulsed vacuum system into a first subsystem comprising the pump, the dump chamber, and the etching chamber and a second subsystem comprising the etching chamber and the expansion chamber;
• separately modeling the first subsystem and the second subsystem using an energy balance technique;
• and
• determining, by a processor, the pulse duration to be used in the etching chamber based on the modeling.