CN114300326A

CN114300326A - Vacuum gate valve and charged particle beam equipment with vacuum environment

Info

Publication number: CN114300326A
Application number: CN202111578310.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 沈晓天; 张旭
Original assignee: Shanghai Precision Measurement Semiconductor Technology Inc
Current assignee: Shanghai Precision Measurement Semiconductor Technology Inc
Priority date: 2021-12-22
Filing date: 2021-12-22
Publication date: 2022-04-08

Abstract

The invention provides a vacuum gate valve and charged particle beam equipment with a vacuum environment, wherein the vacuum gate valve movably closes or opens a first through hole communicated with a cavity and comprises a valve rod, an active ball following the valve rod, a sleeve enclosing the active ball, a door plate movably connected with the sleeve, a passive ball abutted against the active ball and a driving mechanism; the driving mechanism drives the valve rod and the sleeve to do forward horizontal motion to abut against the sleeve through the limiting part, the valve rod is driven to continue to do forward horizontal motion to achieve relative motion of the valve rod and the sleeve, the driving ball pushes the driven ball to enable the door panel to move downwards along the vertical direction to close the first through hole, and the driving mechanism drives the valve rod to do reverse horizontal motion to achieve relative motion to enable the door panel to move upwards to open the first through hole. The vacuum gate valve disclosed by the invention has the advantages of good sealing effect and long service life.

Description

Vacuum gate valve and charged particle beam equipment with vacuum environment

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of valves, in particular to a vacuum gate valve and charged particle beam equipment with a vacuum environment.

Background

Vacuum gate valves are mainly used for chamber-to-chamber connections in vacuum equipment. Specifically, the opening and closing states of the vacuum door valve are controlled to realize the communication and isolation between the two vacuum chambers, when the valve is in the closing state, the air pressures of the two chambers cannot influence each other, and the independent operation of the isolation between the chambers is guaranteed. When the vacuum door valve is in an open state, the chambers are communicated with each other, and the work of measuring, detecting or processing a sample can be carried out. The vacuum gate valve is indispensable sealing equipment for connecting each chamber of the charged particle beam equipment with a vacuum environment, namely, the convenience of operating samples (such as wafers) in the chambers with different vacuum degrees is ensured, and the vacuum degree and the relatively independent control requirement of each vacuum chamber are ensured.

According to the vacuum gate valve in the prior art, the through hole of the cavity is sealed in a mode that the two inclined planes move relatively, so that gaps possibly exist between the inclined planes due to an assembly process, a manufacturing process and long-term use of the inclined planes, the sealing effect is poor, and the service life is short.

In view of the above, there is a need for an improved vacuum gate valve of the prior art to address the above-mentioned problems.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to disclose a vacuum gate valve and charged particle beam equipment with a vacuum environment, which are used for overcoming the defects of poor sealing effect and short service life of the vacuum gate valve in the prior art so as to meet the requirement of the vacuum environment.

To achieve one of the above objects, the present invention provides a vacuum gate valve, which movably closes or opens a first through hole communicating with a chamber,

the method comprises the following steps: the valve comprises a valve rod, an active ball which follows the valve rod, a sleeve which encloses the active ball, a door plate which is movably connected with the sleeve and is used for accommodating a passive ball which is propped against the active ball, and a driving mechanism;

the driving mechanism drives the valve rod and the sleeve to do forward horizontal motion to abut against the sleeve through the limiting part, the valve rod is driven to continue to do forward horizontal motion to achieve relative motion of the valve rod and the sleeve, the driving ball pushes the driven ball to enable the door panel to move downwards along the vertical direction to close the first through hole, the driving mechanism drives the valve rod to do reverse horizontal motion to achieve relative motion to enable the door panel to move upwards, and the valve rod is driven to continue to do reverse horizontal motion to enable the valve rod and the sleeve to keep away from the limiting part so as to open the first through hole.

As a further improvement of the invention, the valve rod is provided with a first ball groove at least partially accommodating the driving ball, the top surface of the door plate is provided with a second ball groove at least partially accommodating the driven ball, and the first ball groove is communicated with the second ball groove.

As a further improvement of the invention, the method also comprises the following steps: the door plate is movably connected with the sleeve through the vertical reset elastic piece, so that the door plate can move away and reset relative to the sleeve.

As a further improvement of the invention, the vertical return elastic member comprises a reed or a spring;

when the vertical reset elastic piece comprises the reed, the reed is always in a compressed state in the process of moving downwards along the vertical direction along with the door plate so as to provide a reset force along the vertical direction for the door plate;

when the vertical reset elastic piece comprises the spring, the spring is always in a stretching state in the process of moving downwards along the vertical direction along with the door plate, so that the reset force along the vertical direction is provided for the door plate.

As a further improvement of the invention, when the driving ball pushes the driven ball to drive the door panel to move to the lower limit position along the vertical direction through the driven ball so as to close the first through hole, an included angle between a connecting line of the spherical centers of the driving ball and the driven ball and the horizontal movement is 70-85 degrees.

As a further improvement of the invention, the method also comprises the following steps: a horizontal reset elastic component and a fixed component formed on the valve rod;

the sleeve is connected with the fixing piece through the horizontal reset elastic piece, the driving mechanism is connected with the fixing piece to drive the valve rod and the sleeve to move, and when the forward relative movement is realized, the horizontal reset elastic piece is stressed and compressed.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the valve rod comprises a door rod member penetrating through the sleeve, and a protrusion member having a radial width larger than that of the door rod member, the door rod member is connected between the protrusion member and the fixing member, and the horizontal return elastic member comprises a pre-tightening spring to abut the sleeve against the protrusion member when the relative movement is not performed in the forward direction or the reverse direction.

As a further improvement of the present invention, a second through hole is formed in the boss member, and the drive mechanism is configured to perform the reverse horizontal movement so that the valve rod and the sleeve are stopped at a target position, so that the first through hole and the second through hole communicate at the target position to open the first through hole.

As a further improvement of the invention, the door panel is horizontally arranged, and a sealing element is embedded at the bottom of the door panel;

the driving mechanism comprises a motor or an air cylinder, the chamber comprises at least an upper chamber and a lower chamber which are vacuum chambers, and the first through hole is communicated with the upper chamber and the lower chamber;

the vacuum gate valve includes the retainer, and there is no relative displacement between the valve shaft and the sleeve when the forward or reverse horizontal movement is to contact or move away from the sleeve.

Based on the same inventive concept, the present invention also discloses a charged particle beam device with vacuum environment, comprising:

a chamber, such as the vacuum gate valve of any of the above inventions, in communication with the first through hole.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

according to the vacuum door valve, the driven ball is pushed by the driving ball through the relative movement of the valve rod and the sleeve, the door plate is enabled to move downwards along the vertical direction to close the first through hole, the valve rod moves horizontally in the opposite direction to enable the door plate to move upwards, the door plate is driven to be separated from the first through hole along the movement direction of the driven ball, and the first through hole communicated with the cavity is opened, so that the defects of poor sealing effect and short service life of the vacuum door valve in the prior art are overcome, and the requirement of a vacuum environment is met.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vacuum gate valve of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the vacuum gate valve taken in a longitudinal direction indicated by a double-headed arrow E in FIG. 1, with a door panel of the vacuum gate valve not closing the first through-hole;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the vacuum gate valve, with its door panel closing the first through hole, taken generally in the longitudinal direction indicated by the double-headed arrow E in FIG. 1;

fig. 4 is schematic diagrams before and after the driving ball pushes the passive ball to drive the passive ball to displace in the vertical direction, wherein two solid circles shown in an up-down oblique manner respectively represent schematic diagrams that the driving ball does not push the passive ball and the door panel does not seal the first through hole, and two dotted circles shown in an up-down oblique manner respectively represent schematic diagrams that the driving ball pushes the passive ball to drive the door panel to seal the first through hole.

Detailed Description

The present invention is described in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, but it should be understood that these embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that functional, methodological, or structural equivalents or substitutions made by these embodiments are within the scope of the present invention.

It should be understood that in the present application, the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "axial", "radial", etc. indicate orientations or positional relationships based on those shown in the drawings, and are only for convenience of description and simplicity of description, but do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 1-4, this example discloses one embodiment of a vacuum gate valve 100 of the present invention. A vacuum gate valve 100 for movably closing or opening a first through hole 301 communicating with a chamber, comprising: the valve comprises a valve rod 1, an active ball 3 which follows the valve rod 1, a sleeve 2 which encloses the active ball 3, a door plate 5 which is movably connected with the sleeve 2, a passive ball 4 which is held against the active ball 3 and is accommodated in the door plate 5, and a driving mechanism. The driving mechanism comprises a motor or a cylinder, the chamber comprises at least one upper chamber and a lower chamber which are vacuum chambers, and the first through hole 301 is communicated with the upper chamber and the lower chamber. The vacuum gate valve includes a retainer 10 that does not allow relative displacement between the valve shaft 1 and the sleeve 2 when moved horizontally in either a forward or reverse direction to contact or move away from the sleeve 2.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, in the present embodiment, the valve rod 1 includes a door rod 102 penetrating the sleeve 2, and a protrusion 101 having a radial width larger than that of the door rod 102, the door rod 102 is connected between the protrusion 101 and the fixing member 7, the horizontal return elastic member 6 includes a pre-tensioned spring to abut the sleeve 2 against the protrusion 101 when the forward or reverse relative movement is not performed, and the horizontal return elastic member 6 can abut against the protrusion 101 in a direction indicated by a double-headed arrow E. The second through hole 200 is formed on the boss member 101, and the driving mechanism is configured to perform reverse horizontal movement so that the valve rod 1 and the sleeve 2 are stopped at the target position, so that the first through hole 301 and the second through hole 200 communicate at the target position to open the first through hole 301. When the valve rod 1 moves horizontally to stop at the target position, the first through hole 301 and the second through hole 200 are communicated. It should be noted that, when the first through hole 301 and the second through hole 200 are communicated, taking the application of the vacuum gate valve to the charged particle beam apparatus as an example, the charged particle beam may pass through the first through hole 301 and the second through hole 200 and be incident on the sample located on the sample stage.

Illustratively, the sleeve 2 comprises an upper sleeve 22 and a lower sleeve 21 which are oppositely buckled up and down and can be movably separated, and the upper sleeve 22 and the lower sleeve 21 jointly clamp the door rod member 102. The door panel 5 is integrally accommodated in the lower sleeve 21 and can be movably extended or retracted downward, and may form a separable contact surface 13. When the active ball 3 pushes the passive ball 4, the passive ball 4 drives the door panel 5 to move vertically downward in the direction indicated by the arrow a in fig. 3, so as to close the first through hole 301 through the door panel 5.

In this embodiment, the first ball groove 11 carries the driving ball 3 to perform a forward or reverse horizontal movement to follow the forward or reverse horizontal movement of the valve rod 1, the door rod member 102 forms a sliding contact surface 12 with the lower sleeve 21 in the forward or reverse horizontal movement, and the door rod member 102 and the lower sleeve 21 are always in a contact state in the process of closing or opening the first through hole 301 by the door panel 5. When the valve rod 1 performs the positive horizontal movement, the limiting piece 10 can be contacted through the lower sleeve 21, the positive horizontal movement is continuously performed, the driving ball 3 starts to perform the left horizontal movement, and the driven ball 4 is pushed. As the valve rod 1 continuously performs a positive horizontal movement, the driving ball 3 gradually moves the driven ball 4 vertically in the second ball groove 50 to push the door plate 50 vertically, and finally the first through hole 301 is closed by the door plate 5 to achieve a sealing effect. During the forward or reverse horizontal movement of the driving ball 3 along with the valve rod 1, the driving ball 3 does not displace in the vertical direction in the first ball groove 11.

As shown in fig. 3, when the door panel 5 closes the first through hole 301, the protrusion 101 and the sleeve 2 are separated in the direction indicated by the double-headed arrow E. When the door panel 5 does not close the first through hole 301, the active ball 3 and the passive ball 4 respectively assume abutting postures as shown by solid circles in fig. 4; when the door panel 5 closes the first through hole 301, the active ball 3 and the passive ball 4 respectively assume an abutting posture as shown by a dotted circle in fig. 4. In fig. 4, the force F1 is applied by the driving mechanism to the valve rod 1 and is applied to the active ball 3 through the valve rod 1. The leftward force F1 is the direction of the valve rod 1 when the door panel 5 closes the first through hole 301, and the opposite force F1 is the direction of the valve rod 1 when the door panel 5 opens the first through hole 301. When the door panel 5 closes the first through hole 301, the active ball 3 moves to the position of the active ball 3a, and the center of the active ball 3 moves from O1 to O2. In the course of the horizontal movement (i.e., the forward horizontal movement) performed by the leftward movement of the active ball 3, the passive ball 4 moves downward to perform a vertical movement, thereby moving the passive ball 4 to the position of the passive ball 4a, and the center of the passive ball 4 moves from O3 to O4. The line between O3 and O4 is perpendicular to the horizontal plane, and the moving distance H formed between O3 and O4 is the displacement distance of the door panel 5 in the vertical direction. In any state that the door panel 5 movably closes or opens the first through hole 301 communicated with the chamber, the active balls 3 and the passive balls 4 are mutually abutted and contacted. The driving ball 3 abuts against and pushes the driven ball 4 to move vertically downward in the direction indicated by the arrow a in fig. 3, and drives the door panel 5 to move downward. In the present embodiment, the door panel 5 is prevented from falling out of the lower sleeve 21 by connecting the door panel 5 and the sleeve 2 by a vertical return elastic member.

When the driving ball 3 pushes the driven ball 4 to drive the door panel 5 to move to the lower limit position along the vertical direction through the driven ball 4 to close the first through hole 301, an included angle β between a spherical center connecting line (i.e., a connecting line between O2 and O3) of the driving ball 3 and the driven ball 4 and the horizontal movement (direction) is 70 to 85 degrees, so that in the process that the driving mechanism reversely drives the valve rod 1 to open the first through hole 301, a small driving force can be used to achieve the purpose of opening the first through hole 301, and the door panel 5 can move vertically and upwardly, and the vertical return elastic member is used to facilitate returning from the state that the door panel 5 shown in fig. 3 closes the first through hole 301 to the state that the door panel 5 shown in fig. 2 opens the first through hole 301.

When the valve rod 1 horizontally retracts in the direction opposite to the limiting part 10, the vertical return elastic part applies a vertically upward restoring force to the passive ball 4 to drive the door panel 5 to move in the vertical direction and move to an upper limit position (i.e., a state corresponding to the passive ball 4 in fig. 4), an included angle α between a spherical center connecting line of the active ball 3 and the passive ball 4 and a horizontal plane is 45-50 degrees, so that when the valve rod 1 performs a forward horizontal motion relative to the sleeve 2 to drive the active ball 3 to push the passive ball 4, the passive ball 4 can be easily pushed. When the door panel 5 is located at the upper limit position, a gap 55 is formed between the door panel 5 and an end face 302 of the cylinder 30 facing the door panel 5.

When the door panel 5 is driven by the driven ball 4 to move to the lower limit position in the vertical direction to close the first through hole 301, the door panel 5 and the lower sleeve 21 are separated from the contact surface 13 in fig. 2 to form a cavity as shown by arrows C and D in fig. 3. When the driving mechanism moves horizontally in the opposite direction to separate the door panel 5 from the first through hole 301 and drives the door panel 5 upward to the upper limit position again, the driving ball 3 moves horizontally rightward, and the driven ball 4 moves vertically upward, so that the cavities shown by the arrows C and D disappear.

In this embodiment, the vacuum gate valve 100 further includes: horizontal reset elastic component 6, fixed component 7 formed on valve rod 1 and vertical reset elastic component. The sleeve 2 is connected with the fixing piece 7 through the horizontal reset elastic piece 6, the driving mechanism is connected with the fixing piece 7 to drive the valve rod 1 and the sleeve 2 to move horizontally, and when the forward relative movement is realized, the horizontal reset elastic piece 6 is compressed under force. The door panel 5 is movably connected with the sleeve 2 through a vertical reset elastic piece, so that the door panel 5 can move away and reset relative to the sleeve 2. Illustratively, the fixing member 7 includes a fixing block 71, a blind hole 72 with internal threads, and a bolt (not shown) inserted into the blind hole 72 to fix the fixing block 71 to the valve shaft 1. A push rod (not shown) formed by a driving mechanism is fixedly connected with the fixing member 7 to integrally drive the valve rod 1 and the fixing member 7 through the driving mechanism, and the valve rod 1 can be driven to perform a forward horizontal movement relative to the sleeve 2 and the valve rod 1 can be driven to perform a reverse horizontal movement relative to the sleeve 2. When a forward horizontal movement is performed, the horizontal return spring 6 is compressed to store energy, so that when a reverse horizontal movement is performed, a return between the fixing element 7 and the sleeve 2 is achieved, which may be arranged around the outside of the valve shaft 1 in the horizontal direction by means of one or more horizontal return springs 6.

In this embodiment, the horizontal return elastic element 6 includes a pre-tightening spring to provide a pre-tightening force to abut the sleeve 2 against the protrusion 101 when the relative movement is not performed in the forward or reverse direction, so that the sleeve 2 is prevented from shaking. For example, when the valve rod 1 and the sleeve 2 are moved horizontally and the sleeve 2 is not abutted to the limiting member 10 (in this embodiment, there is no relative movement), the sleeve 2 can be abutted to the protrusion 101 of the valve rod 1 by the pre-tightening force provided by the pre-tightening spring, so as to prevent the sleeve 2 from shaking; when the sleeve 2 abuts against the limiting part 10 and the valve rod 1 continues to move horizontally, although the sleeve 2 is separated from the valve rod 1, the sleeve 2 abuts against the limiting part 10 under the action of the pre-tightening spring, and the function of preventing the sleeve 2 from shaking can also be achieved. Because can avoid sleeve 2 to take place to rock, so can ensure that the in-process that the initiative ball 3 pushed passive ball 4 keeps initiative ball 3 and passive ball to keep in same vertical plane all the time to guaranteed door plant 5 and risen or descending motion in-process stability and rigidity, thereby be favorable to closing first through-hole 301 effectively through door plant 5. Further, the horizontal return spring 6 is always in a compressed state during the opening or closing of the first through hole 301 by the door panel 5. In addition, the horizontal return elastic member 6 may be a spring or a damper, and when the horizontal return elastic member 6 is a spring, two or three or more thin springs with a diameter not enough to enclose the door lever 102 may be implemented in such a manner that one spring with a diameter larger than that of the door lever 102 encloses the outside of the door lever 102.

Referring to fig. 1, the vertical return elastic member includes a spring plate 8 or a spring.

When the vertical return elastic member includes the spring 8, the spring 8 is always in a compressed state during the downward movement in the vertical direction with the door panel 5, so as to provide the return force in the vertical upward direction (in the upward direction in the Y axis direction in fig. 4) to the door panel 5. Specifically, the vacuum gate valve 100 includes two reeds 8, and the two reeds 8 are symmetrically disposed on both sides of the sleeve 2. Spring 8 is in the form of an arch and the two ends of spring 8 form free ends 81. The upper sleeve 22 is provided with a projection 215 transversely along both sides of the extension direction of the valve rod 1. The lower sleeve 21 is transversely provided with a projection 211 and a projection 212 for accommodating the free end 81 along two sides of the extending direction of the valve rod 1. The projection 211 and the projection 215 are threadedly fixed in the vertical direction by a bolt to snap-fit the upper sleeve 22 and the lower sleeve 21 to form the sleeve 2. A limit space 213 is formed between the protrusion 211 and the protrusion 212 to support the free end 81. The door panel 5 is provided with a top block 2101 which protrudes upwards, a locking block 214 connected with the upper sleeve 22 is arranged between the two convex blocks 215, the locking block 214 and the top block 2101 vertically clamp the straight section at the top of the reed 8, and the locking block 214, the reed 8 and the top block 2101 are continuously penetrated through by bolts along the vertical direction so as to fix the reed 8 on the door panel 5. In this embodiment, the two free ends 81 of one spring 8 abut against the limiting space 213, and the straight section of the top of the spring 8 is higher than the two free ends 81, so that the two free ends 81 abut against the upper surface of the protrusion 212, and the spring 8 is locked and kept in a compressed state all the time, so as to provide a pre-tightening force for the door panel 5, and prevent the door panel 5 from falling out of the lower sleeve 21.

When the vertical return elastic member includes a spring, the spring is always in a stretched state during a downward movement in the vertical direction (in a downward direction in the Y axis direction in fig. 4) with the door panel 5, so as to provide a return force in the vertical upward direction to the door panel 5. As described above, at this time, the spring pieces 8 provided on both sides of the sleeve 2 may be exchanged for elastic members such as springs (not shown). Illustratively, two vertically disposed springs may be disposed on both sides of the sleeve 2, respectively. The two free ends of the spring are respectively fixed between the projection 215 and the projection 211 (or the projection 212), so that when the driving mechanism applies a driving force to the valve rod 1, which is opposite to the force F1 in fig. 4, the two springs respectively arranged on the two sides provide a reset force to the door panel 5 along the vertical direction; meanwhile, when the driving mechanism applies the driving force of the force F1 in fig. 4 to the valve rod 1, the door panel 5 is provided with a pretightening force by the two springs respectively arranged at the two sides, so that the door panel 5 is prevented from falling off from the lower sleeve 21.

The driving mechanism drives the valve rod 1 and the sleeve 2 to do forward horizontal motion to abut against the sleeve 2 through the limiting part 10, the valve rod 1 is driven to continue to do forward horizontal motion to realize the relative motion of the valve rod 1 and the sleeve 2, the driving ball 3 pushes the driven ball 4 to enable the door panel 5 to move downwards along the vertical direction so as to close the first through hole 301, the driving mechanism drives the valve rod 1 to do reverse horizontal motion to realize the relative motion to enable the door panel 5 to move upwards, and the driving valve rod 1 continues to do reverse horizontal motion to enable the valve rod 1 and the sleeve 2 to be far away from the limiting part 10 so as to open the first through hole 301. The valve rod 1 is provided with a first ball groove 11 at least partially accommodating the driving ball 3, the top surface of the door panel 5 is provided with a second ball groove 50 at least partially accommodating the driven ball 4, and the first ball groove 11 is communicated with the second ball groove 50. Meanwhile, the inner diameter of the first ball groove 11 is equal to or slightly larger than the diameter of the driving ball 3, and preferably equal; the inner diameter of the second ball groove 50 is equal to or slightly larger than the diameter of the passive ball 4, and preferably equal. The door plate 5, the sleeve 2 and the valve rod 1 jointly enclose the active ball 3 and the passive ball 4 to isolate the external environment, so that even trace particles are generated in the pushing and resetting processes of the active ball 3 and the passive ball 4, the particles cannot be leaked into the external environment, and the high-cleanliness environment is favorably maintained. In addition, the passive ball 4 is partially or wholly accommodated by the second ball groove 50, so that the situation that the passive ball 4 shakes in the horizontal direction due to the fact that the active ball 3 pushes the passive ball 4 is avoided, the door panel 5 is enabled to move vertically downwards and reset in the process of executing vertical downwards movement by the aid of vertical downwards driving force applied by the passive ball 4, the stability of the door panel 5 in the vertical direction is improved, the door panel 5 can be prevented from keeping the horizontal posture, the laminating column 30 faces the end face 302 of the door panel 5, and the sealing effect of the door panel 5 on the first through hole 301 is further improved.

In the present embodiment, the forward horizontal movement refers to a movement along a direction indicated by an arrow B in fig. 3, the reverse horizontal movement refers to a horizontal movement performed in a direction opposite to the direction indicated by the arrow B in fig. 3, and when the valve rod 1 performs the forward horizontal movement, the passive ball 4 is abutted by the active ball 3, so that the passive ball 4 moves in the vertical direction in the second ball groove 50, and finally the door panel 5 is pushed by the passive ball 4 to perform a vertical movement to close the first through hole 301 by the door panel 5; on the contrary, when the valve rod 1 performs the reverse horizontal movement, the vertical return elastic member (e.g. the spring 8) drives the door panel 5 to separate from the first through hole 301, and the reverse horizontal movement is continuously performed, so as to open the first through hole 301.

Illustratively, the present embodiment further discloses a charged particle beam device with a vacuum environment, comprising: a chamber, such as the vacuum gate valve 100 disclosed in the previous embodiments, is in communication with the first through hole 301. For example, the chamber includes at least one upper chamber (not shown) and a lower chamber (not shown) which are vacuum chambers, and the first through hole 301 communicates the upper chamber and the lower chamber, in which case the vacuum gate valve 100 is horizontally disposed and the door panel 5 moves up and down along the Y-axis in fig. 4. The door panel 5 opens the first through hole 301 when moving upward in the Y axis direction, and closes the first through hole 301 when moving downward the door panel 5.

The charged particle beam equipment with vacuum environment realizes the isolation and communication in the chambers by closing or opening the first through hole 301 through the column 30 forming the through hole 301 and the vacuum door valve 100 among the chambers with different vacuum degrees. For example, when the door of the lower chamber is opened to inspect parts in the lower chamber, the lower chamber is communicated with the atmosphere, and in order to prevent the vacuum environment of the upper chamber from being damaged, the first through hole 301 is closed using the vacuum door valve 100 to isolate the upper chamber from the lower chamber, and then the door is opened; after re-evacuating the lower chamber so that the degree of vacuum of the lower chamber is satisfactory, the first through hole 301 is opened using the vacuum gate valve 100 to communicate the upper chamber with the lower chamber, and the charged particle beam can pass through the first through hole 301 and enter onto the sample on the sample stage in the lower chamber.

In the process that the door panel 5 approaches or leaves to shield or open the first through hole 301, the end face 302 of the cylinder 30 facing the door panel 5 forms a plane 53 on one side of the door panel 5 facing the end face 302 (for example, the bottom of the door panel 5 in fig. 1), the door panel 5 is horizontally arranged, and a sealing element 52 is embedded in the bottom of the door panel 5, that is, a circle (or multiple circles of grooves) are formed on the plane 53 to accommodate the sealing element 52, so that the door panel 5 tightly adheres to the end face 302 through the sealing element 52 under the direct drive of the passive ball 4, and a good sealing effect is achieved. The sealing element 52 may also be embedded on the end surface 302, and the sealing element (not shown) embedded on the end surface 302 and the bottom of the door panel 5 are embedded with a sealing element 52 in a concentric circle arrangement, so as to further improve the closing of the through hole 301 by the horizontally arranged door panel 5 in the process that the door panel 5 moves downwards and is tightly attached to the end surface 302. Further, the approaching and separating movement of the door panel 5 toward the cylinder 30 may be configured in an inclined posture depending on the spatial configuration arrangement of the cylinder 30 forming the through hole 301. In addition, the plane 53 of the door panel 5 facing the cylinder 30 may be integrally configured to partially wrap the cylinder 30, so as to further improve the sealing effect of the door panel 5 on the first through hole 301. The aforementioned chamber is a part of a charged particle beam apparatus having a vacuum environment, and the charged particle beam apparatus having a vacuum environment includes a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), a focused ion beam apparatus (FIB), or a focused ion beam-scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM).

It should be noted that the chamber disclosed in this embodiment may further include at least one left chamber (not shown) and a right chamber (not shown) which are vacuum chambers, and the first through hole 301 communicates the left chamber and the right chamber. The door panel 5 is horizontally moved left and right in a vertical posture along the X-axis in fig. 4. The door panel 5 opens the through hole 301 when moving rightward along the X axis, and closes the through hole 301 when moving leftward along the X axis. Or the vacuum gate valve 100 can be arranged in the charged particle beam equipment with a vacuum environment in any other posture, and the door panel 5 is driven by the door panel 5 along the motion direction of the passive ball 4 to be separated from the first through hole 301, so that the first through hole 301 communicated with the chamber is opened, meanwhile, the door panel 5 is driven by the door panel 5 along the motion direction of the passive ball 4 to be closed with the first through hole 301, so that the first through hole 301 communicated with the chamber is closed, and the first through hole 301 communicated with the chamber is movably closed or opened.

The above-listed detailed description is only a specific description of a possible embodiment of the present invention, and they are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and equivalent embodiments or modifications made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the details of the foregoing illustrative embodiments, and that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein. Any reference sign in a claim should not be construed as limiting the claim concerned.

Furthermore, it should be understood that although the present description refers to embodiments, not every embodiment may contain only a single embodiment, and such description is for clarity only, and those skilled in the art should integrate the description, and the embodiments may be combined as appropriate to form other embodiments understood by those skilled in the art.

Claims

1. A vacuum gate valve movably closes or opens a first through hole communicating with a chamber,

it is characterized by comprising: the valve comprises a valve rod, an active ball which follows the valve rod, a sleeve which encloses the active ball, a door plate which is movably connected with the sleeve and is used for accommodating a passive ball which is propped against the active ball, and a driving mechanism;

2. The vacuum gate valve of claim 1, wherein the valve shaft defines a first ball slot at least partially receiving the driving ball, the top surface of the door panel defines a second ball slot at least partially receiving the driven ball, and the first ball slot communicates with the second ball slot.

3. The vacuum gate valve of claim 1, further comprising: the door plate is movably connected with the sleeve through the vertical reset elastic piece, so that the door plate can move away and reset relative to the sleeve.

4. The vacuum gate valve of claim 3, wherein the vertical return spring comprises a reed or spring;

5. The vacuum gate valve of claim 1, wherein the driving ball and the driven ball are at an angle of 70-85 degrees with respect to the horizontal movement when the driving ball pushes the driven ball to drive the door plate to move in a vertical direction to a lower limit position by the driven ball to close the first through hole.

6. The vacuum gate valve of claim 1, further comprising: a horizontal reset elastic component and a fixed component formed on the valve rod;

7. The vacuum gate valve of claim 6, wherein the valve shaft includes a shaft member extending through the sleeve and a boss member having a radial width greater than the shaft member, the shaft member being connected between the boss member and the stationary member, the horizontal return spring member including a pre-tensioned spring to bias the sleeve against the boss member in the absence of the relative movement in the forward or reverse directions.

8. The vacuum gate valve of claim 7, wherein the boss member has a second through-hole formed therein, and the drive mechanism is configured to perform the reverse horizontal movement to stop the valve shaft and the sleeve at a target position such that the first through-hole and the second through-hole communicate at the target position to open the first through-hole.

9. The vacuum gate valve of any one of claims 1-8, wherein the door panel is horizontally disposed, and a seal is embedded in a bottom of the door panel;

10. A charged particle beam apparatus having a vacuum environment, comprising:

a chamber of the vacuum gate valve of any of claims 1-9, the chamber in communication with the first throughbore.