A vacuum system, as used in sputtering electrically conducting thin films on microcircuits, is comprised of a

Question:

A vacuum system, as used in sputtering electrically conducting thin films on microcircuits, is comprised of a base plate maintained by an electrical heater at 300 K and a shroud within the enclosure maintained at 77 K by a liquid-nitrogen coolant loop. The circular base plate, insulated on the lower side, is 0.3 m in diameter and has an emissivity of 0.25.

(a) How much electrical power must be provided to the base plate heater?

(b) At what rate must liquid nitrogen be supplied to the shroud if its heat of vaporization is 125kJ/kg?

(c) To reduce the liquid-nitrogen consumption. It is proposed to bond a thin sheet of aluminum foil (B = 0.09) to the base plate. Will this have the desired effect?

Vacuum enclosure Liquid-nitrogen filled shroud LN2 LElectrical heater Baseplate