Abstract: A frame which carries a plurality of circular substrates seated in grooves in planar alignment. The substrates are seated in grooves defined within the circumferential periphery of apertures within the frame. Each groove and aperture have a diameter slightly larger than the substrate, with the groove contacting only a fraction of the rim of the substrate so that the substrate may orbit within the groove as the frame is provided with circular oscillations. This causes rotation of the substrate in the groove, i.e. the rim of the substrate "walks" around the inner circumference of the groove.

Abstract: A low-temperature pump having a throttling valve formed by tilting radially disposed vanes in side-by-side relation, capable of fully opening a pump port to a process chamber. Motion from one vane can be coupled to the next through shims which support the vanes and form a seal when the vanes are flat in a common plane. One of the vanes may be controlled independently of the others so that coarse and fine modes of operation may be achieved by separately controlling (N-1) vanes and the Nth vane. The vanes are maintained in thermal contact with a chilled outer wall surface of a first pumping stage of a two-stage pump, the second stage coaxially surrounding a first stage maintained at a very low temperature. A central hub, at the convergence region for the vanes, supports a shield, protecting the second stage from radiation through a port in the upper regions of the pump.

Abstract: A gas flow control valve wherein radially disposed vanes are mounted within an annular flange with rotationally mounted shims connecting the radial vanes to the inner peripheral surface of a flange. The shims are disposed in a rim-to-rim configuration with a groove defined in rims of the shims and a cable laid in the grooves in a serpentine pattern. By causing one of the shims to rotate by means of a sealed shaft extending through the flange, the remaining shims may be driven by the cable causing corresponding motion of the vanes. The shims are mounted to the flange by means of pins. The shims are relatively thin such that they may be hidden beneath overhanging regions on opposite side walls of the flange, exposing only the radially disposed vanes to a gas flow path.