Facts
Friction due to mechanical contact of moving parts such as slide bearings leads to wear. Wear can result in particle shedding, which leads to wafer defectivity.
In comparison to conventional centrifugal pumps, Levitronix^® pumps have no (slide) bearings.

Test conditions
Three high capacity centrifugal pumps from different manufacturers were evaluated for particle shedding in ultrapure water during operation at multiple test conditions. The flow rates varied from 11 – 190 lpm, while pump outlet pressure varied from 3.5 to 6.2 bar.

Results
The Levitronix^® pump consistently shed the fewest particles of the pumps evaluated in this study, regardless of operating conditions. In all tests, the particle concentrations measured downstream of the Levitronix^® pumps were very close to the concentrations measured without a test pump in the system. Competing pump systems shed up to 400 times as many particles as the Levitronix^® pump.

Particle size distribution measured downstream of the pumps at 5gpm and 40 psig