Basic Vacuum Pump

[NemoAndrea]

To get started with stage vacuum, I decided to use a basic diaphragm pump meant for use in aquariums and reverse the diaphragm so it will operate as a vacuum pump.

I used a Tetra APS 100 as the basis, as reversing the diapgragm is easy enough.

You can check out the selectable area in action in this short video.

💡 I am not super happy with the strength of the vacuum. I think in the future a simple 12V dedicated pump would make more sense. I do want a traditional 525um 4" silicon wafer to be able to be held in place vertically by the vacuum.