JP2007083135A - Gas detoxifying system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce down time, to improve detoxifying efficiency and to enhance maintainability. <P>SOLUTION: A gas detoxifying system S comprises: an etching device 1 having a plurality of chambers 2, 3, 4 generating harmful gases; mixers agitating and mixing the harmful gases in the chambers 2, 3, 4 with a treating liquid W, and then discharging into the treating liquid in the liquid vessel 11a; and a removing device 10 having a circulating pump P1 sending the treating liquid W in the liquid vessel to the flowing-in opening of the mixers. The mixers 13, 14, 15 are installed corresponding to the respective chambers 2, 3, 4; and the circulating pump P1 sends the treating liquid W to respective mixers 13, 14, 15. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a gas detoxification treatment system for detoxifying and recovering harmful gases discharged from a production processing apparatus that generates harmful gases, such as a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and a liquid crystal manufacturing apparatus. .

Gases discharged from semiconductor production lines and liquid crystal production lines contain fine gases such as SiO ₂ and WO _{3 as} well as harmful gases such as HF, BCl ₃ , Cl ₂ and Hcl. Can not be released. Therefore, conventionally, harmful gas is removed by using the following apparatus (for example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

  An apparatus for removing harmful gases by mixing them with water, a liquid tank for storing a processing liquid, a circulation path communicating with the liquid tank, a circulation path disposed in the circulation path, and a plurality of chambers of the etching apparatus A gas-liquid mixing / stirring device (mixer) that mixes and stirs the generated harmful gas with the processing liquid, turns it into fine bubbles and releases it into the processing liquid in the liquid tank, and the processing in the liquid tank. And a pump for forcibly circulating the liquid to the mixer.

Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-018122 Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-346336

The conventional example has the following problems.
(1) Since harmful gases from a plurality of chambers are supplied to a single mixer, the operation of all the chambers must be stopped during mixer maintenance. However, in this case, the operation of the etching apparatus must be stopped until the maintenance is completed, so that the downtime is increased. Therefore, the etching apparatus cannot be used efficiently.
Therefore, each gas supply pipe that connects each chamber and the mixer is connected to a bypass pipe via a valve, and at the time of maintenance of the mixer, the valve is switched to allow harmful gas to flow through the bypass pipe. However, when this is done, there is a problem with the treatment of harmful gas flowing in the bypass pipe.

  (2) The amount of harmful gas generated in each chamber varies depending on the processing status. Therefore, the total amount of harmful gas supplied to the mixer is not always constant, so that the gas concentration changes. In the abatement apparatus, a large change occurs in the abatement efficiency depending on the gas concentration, and when the gas concentration is low, the abatement efficiency is lowered.

(3) When a plurality of harmful gases having different properties, for example, a water-soluble gas that is easily dissolved in water and a water-insoluble gas that is difficult to dissolve in water, only the water-soluble gas is abolished. Detoxification efficiency is significantly reduced.
(4) When a plurality of gases are mixed, the mixer is easily clogged, so the maintenance cycle is shortened and the maintainability is deteriorated.

  In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to reduce downtime. Another object is to improve the removal efficiency and improve the maintainability.

  According to the present invention, a plurality of harmful gas generation sources provided independently of each other, and the harmful gas and the treatment liquid of the harmful gas generation source are mixed in gas and liquid, and released into the treatment liquid in the liquid tank. A gas harm-removing treatment system comprising a mixer and a gradual harming device having a circulation pump for delivering a treatment liquid in the liquid tank to an inlet of the mixer, wherein the mixer is a source of each harmful gas The circulation pump is a shared pump that sends out the processing liquid to each mixer.

  The plurality of harmful gas generation sources according to the present invention are constituted by a plurality of chambers provided in one semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. The plurality of harmful gas generation sources of the present invention are characterized by comprising a plurality of processing apparatuses that generate harmful gases.

  The diameters of the mixers of the present invention are the same or different. The toxic gases of the toxic gas generation sources according to the present invention are different types.

  The mixer according to the present invention is provided corresponding to each harmful gas generation source, and the circulation pump is shared, so that each mixer is supplied with only one harmful gas generation gas. The As a result, the amount of harmful gas supplied to each mixer varies little and maintenance can be performed independently of other mixers, thereby reducing downtime. In addition, since it is not a mixed gas, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of troubles such as clogging of the mixer with good efficiency of detoxification.

The present inventor has considered that the object of the present invention can be achieved by providing a detoxifying apparatus having a mixer corresponding to each chamber of the etching apparatus.
However, with such a configuration, a plurality of abatement devices corresponding to the number of chambers are required, which causes a problem that it is not preferable in terms of installation space and cost.

  Therefore, as a result of repeated research experiments, the present inventor made the number of mixers in one abatement device equal to the number of chambers in which harmful gases are generated, and provided a dedicated mixer for each chamber. It has been found that this problem can be solved. Further, it was found that if the total flow rate of each mixer is not different from that of the conventional example, only one pump is sufficient as in the conventional example. This invention is made | formed based on the said knowledge.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
The gas detoxification processing system S includes a harmful gas generation source, for example, an etching apparatus (etcher) 1 and a harmful gas removal apparatus 10. The etcher 1 includes a plurality of chambers 2, 3, 4 that generate harmful gases. The harmful gases in the chambers 2 to 4 have different properties, for example, a water-insoluble gas such as HF and BCl3, or a water-insoluble gas such as Cl2.

  The abatement apparatus 10 is provided with a liquid tank 11 for storing a processing liquid, for example, water W. The liquid tank 11 is separated into a first liquid tank 11 a and a second liquid tank 11 b by a partition wall 12. A predetermined amount of processing liquid W is stored in the liquid tank 11a.

  The liquid tank 11a is provided with three gas-liquid mixing / stirring devices (mixers) 13, 14, and 15, and the discharge ports 13a to 15a of the mixers 13 to 15 are located in the processing liquid W. The inflow ports 13b to 15b are disposed so as to protrude from the liquid tank 11a. The diameters of the mixers 13 to 15 are the same, for example, 30 mm to 35 mm in diameter, and the total amount of fluid discharged from the three mixers 13 to 15 is one mixer (diameter 100 mm in diameter). ).

  Note that the diameters, arrangement positions, and the like of each mixer are changed as necessary. For example, the diameters of the three mixers are made different from each other, or the mixers are arranged outside the liquid tank. The discharge port may be communicated with the processing liquid in the liquid tank via a connecting pipe.

  The structure of each mixer 13, 14, 15 is the same as that of the conventional example. That is, it is composed of a cylindrical case (not shown), a pair of split ellipsoids (not shown), and a group of protrusions (not shown) arranged on the downstream side. The arc-side edges of the pair of split ellipsoids are configured to contact the inner wall of the cylindrical casing.

  In the mixers 13 to 15, when the first circulation pump P1 is activated and the processing liquid W in the liquid tank 11a is sent into the mixers 13 to 15, the processing liquid W is spirally flowed by the action of the split elliptical disk. The gas is mixed with harmful gas from the chambers 2 to 5, and the gas is finely crushed by the action of the projection group and mixed with the processing liquid W.

  The bottom of the liquid tank 11a communicates with the inlets 13b, 14b, and 15b of the mixers 13 to 15 via the circulation path 17. The circulation path 17 is provided with a first circulation pump P1, and the circulation path on the downstream side of the pump P1 is branched into three circulation branches 19, 20, and 21, each circulation branch 19 to 21 is Sequentially connected to the inlets 13b, 14b, 15b of the mixers 13-15.

  Since the discharge amount of the three mixers 13 to 15 is substantially equal to that of the conventional single mixer, the conventional pump can be used as it is. The pump P1 is configured such that the number of rotations can be changed by a set value of an inverter (not shown) and the flow rate and pressure can be adjusted.

  The heads located on the inlets 13 b to 15 b side of the mixers 13 to 15 are sequentially connected to the chambers 2, 3 and 4 via the gas supply pipes 23, 24 and 25. Each gas supply pipe 23 to 25 is provided with a pressure gauge PM and a valve V. The gas supply pipes 23 to 25 are connected to the bypass pipe B through the valve V.

  The second fluid tank 11b is provided with a mixer 30. The discharge port 30a of the mixer 30 is located in the processing liquid W, and the inlet 30b is provided so as to protrude from the liquid tank 11b.

  The bottom of the liquid tank 11 b communicates with the inlet 30 b of the mixer 30 via the second circulation path 32. The circulation path 32 is provided with a second circulation pump P2. The mixer 30 and the pump P2 are the same as the conventional one.

  The upper part of the first liquid tank 11 a is connected to the head on the inlet 30 b side of the mixer 30 via the secondary gas pipe 33. An exhaust pipe 35 is provided above the second liquid tank 11b. The pipe 35 discharges the decontaminated clean gas G outside the apparatus.

  Reference numeral 37 denotes an overflow pipe provided on the partition wall 12. When the amount of liquid in the second liquid tank 11b exceeds a set amount, the processing liquid in the second liquid tank 11b is passed through the pipe 37 to the first liquid tank. It is discharged to 11a.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
For normal operation:
When a start button (not shown) is turned on, the pumps P1 and P2 are started, and the processing liquid W in the liquid tanks 11a and 11b starts to be turned to the circulation paths 17, 19 to 21, and 32, and the circulation paths 17, 19 to 21 are started. , 32 is substantially constant, and the processing liquid W is pumped to the mixers 13 to 15 and 30. When the processing liquid W flows into the mixers 13 to 15, a negative pressure is generated in the mixer, and a force for sucking harmful gas from the chambers 2, 3, and 4 is generated by the action.

When the valve V of the gas supply pipes 23 to 25 is opened, the harmful gas in the chambers 2, 3, 4 is sucked into the mixers 13, 14, 15 and mixed with the processing liquid W.
At this time, the harmful gas is mixed with the treatment liquid W flowing in a spiral flow by the action of the split elliptical disk, but is finely crushed by the action of the projection group, for example, bubbles having a diameter of 0.5 to 3.0 mm, and It returns to the 1st liquid tank 11a from discharge port 13a, 14a, 15a, and is detoxified.

On the other hand, the gas accumulated in the upper part of the first liquid tank 11a is sucked into the mixer 30 through the secondary gas pipe 33 and mixed with the processing liquid W to be further detoxified.
The clean gas G collected in the upper part of the second liquid tank 11b is discharged to the outside through the exhaust pipe 35.

When maintaining the mixer etc .:
When the valve V of the gas supply pipe 23 is closed, the harmful gas in the chamber 2 flows into the bypass pipe B and does not flow into the mixer 13. Therefore, maintenance, inspection and repair of the mixer 13 can be performed.

At this time, since the mixers 13, 14, and 15 are independent of each other, the operation of the other mixers 14 and 15 can be continued, so that the downtime can be reduced.
When the operation of the mixer 13 is stopped, the rotational speed of the pump P1 is controlled while looking at the pressure gauge PM of the gas supply pipes 24 and 25 so that a set amount of gas can be sucked into the mixers 14 and 15. To do.

The embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the above, and may be as follows, for example.
(1) Sources of harmful gases include semiconductor manufacturing equipment, liquid crystal manufacturing equipment, sewage treatment equipment, and the like.
(2) In addition to providing a plurality of toxic gas generation sources in one manufacturing processing apparatus, a single toxic gas generation source is provided in one manufacturing processing apparatus, and a plurality of toxic gas generation sources are formed by using the plurality. May be.

It is a figure which shows the Example of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Etching apparatus 2 Chamber 3 Chamber 4 Chamber 11a 1st liquid tank 11b 2nd liquid tank 13 Mixer 14 Mixer 15 Mixer 17 Circulation path 19 Circulation branch 20 Circulation branch 21 Circulation branch 23 Gas supply pipe 24 Gas supply pipe 25 Gas Supply pipe P1 First circulation pump S Gas detoxification treatment system

Claims (5)

A plurality of harmful gas generation sources provided independently of each other; a mixer that mixes and stirs the harmful gas and the processing liquid of the harmful gas generation source into the processing liquid in the liquid tank; A detoxification system comprising: a detoxification device having a circulation pump for delivering a treatment liquid in a liquid tank to an inlet of the mixer;
The mixer is provided for each source of harmful gas,
The circulation pump is a common pump for delivering a processing liquid to each mixer, respectively, and is a gas detoxification processing system   2. The gas detoxification processing system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of noxious gas generation sources are composed of a plurality of chambers provided in one semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.   2. The gas detoxification processing system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of noxious gas generation sources comprise a plurality of processing devices for generating noxious gases.   The gas detoxification treatment system according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the diameter of each mixer is the same or different.   4. The gas detoxification treatment system according to claim 3, wherein the toxic gases of the toxic gas generation sources are of different types.

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