摘要 |
A turbo pump for evacuating a process chamber minimizes the amount time necessary to reduce the speed of the rotor in preparation for performing maintenance in the process chamber or the like. The turbo pump includes a housing communicating with the reaction chamber, a plurality of fixed stator rings spaced from one another along an inner peripheral surface of the housing, a shaft supported for rotation in the housing, a stator base surrounding the shaft and having an electric coil, a plurality of rotor blades each extending between an adjacent pair of the stator rings, and an electrode disposed at an outer peripheral surface of the housing. The electrode can receive an electric charge opposite to that applied to the rotor to forcibly stop the rotation of the rotor. Also, an electrical contact can be conductively connected to the rotor. Thus, opposite charges can be applied to the blades of the rotor and the stator to prevent the blades from contacting the stator when, for example, air backflows into the housing through a discharge port. |