Most turbomolecular pumps employ multiple stages, each consisting of a quickly rotating rotor blade and stationary stator blade pair. The system is an axial compressor that puts energy into the gas, rather than a turbine, which takes energy out of a moving fluid to create rotary power, thus "turbomolecular pump" is a misnomer. Gas captured by the upper stages is pushed into the lower stages and successively compressed to the level of the fore-vacuum (backing pump) pressure.
