JP2008274865A - Cryopump system and maintenance method for cryopump - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve maintenance efficiency of a cryopump performing a maintenance process by supplying a computer for maintenance with operation data of the cryopump, and a maintenance method for the cryopump. <P>SOLUTION: This cryopump system includes a plurality of cryopumps 20, a main controller 3 controlling the plurality of cryopumps 20, a storage device 17 provided in a main controller 3 and storing individual operation data of the cryopumps 20 together, a maintenance computer 4 performing data process based on the operation data during maintenance of the cryopumps 20, and a data sending means sending the operation data to the maintenance computer 4 from the storage device 17 with using compact flash card 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a cryopump system and a cryopump maintenance method, and more particularly, to a cryopump system and a cryopump maintenance method that perform maintenance processing by supplying cryopump operation data to a maintenance computer.

  In general, a cryopump using a cryogenic refrigerator such as a GM refrigerator (Gifford McMahon cycle refrigerator) is known. This cryopump is provided in a vacuum processing container (chamber) of a semiconductor manufacturing processing apparatus, and is used to make a high vacuum in the chamber. Usually, a plurality of cryopumps are provided in the chamber. Since the performance of this cryopump may deteriorate due to long-term operation, maintenance is performed every predetermined operation time (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

  During this maintenance, maintenance processing is performed based on the operation data of the cryopump during operation. Here, the operation data of the cryopump during operation includes, for example, operation time data, alarm history data generated in the past, regeneration history data, and the like. This kind of operation data is subjected to data processing in a maintenance computer, and appropriate maintenance processing is performed on the cryopump based on this data processing.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of a conventional cryopump system 100. In the example shown in the figure, the cryopump system 100 is configured to control three cryopumps 120 </ b> A to 120 </ b> C by the main controller 103.

  The cryopumps 120A to 120C and the main controller 103 are connected in series (daisy chain connection) by a cable 135. In addition, each of the cryopumps 120A to 120C is provided with storage devices 139A to 139C that store operation data indicating respective operation states. Further, the cryopumps 120A to 120C have modems 138A to 138C for connecting the maintenance computer 104, and the modems 138A to 138C are connected to the storage devices 139A to 139C.

  In the cryopump system 100 configured as described above, in order to perform maintenance processing on the cryopumps 120A to 120C, it is necessary to read the operation data of the cryopumps 120A to 120C into the maintenance computer 104 as described above. In the conventional cryopump system 100, as a method for sending operation data to the maintenance computer 104, the maintenance computer 104 is first connected to the modem 138A of the cryopump 120A, and the cryopump 120A stored in the storage device 139A is connected. The operation data is sent to the maintenance computer 104.

  When this is completed, the maintenance computer 104 is disconnected from the modem 138A and then connected again to the modem 138B, and the operation data of the cryopump 120B stored in the storage device 139B is sent to the maintenance computer 104. Further, after removing the maintenance computer 104 from the modem 138B, the maintenance computer 104 is connected again to the modem 138C, and the operation data of the cryopump 120C stored in the storage device 139C is sent to the maintenance computer 104.

Thus, in the conventional cryopump system 100, the maintenance computer 104 is individually connected to the modems 138A to 138C of the cryopumps 120A to 120C, and the operation data is sent from the individual storage devices 139A to 139B to the maintenance computer 104. The method was taken.
Japanese Translation of National Publication No. 04-501751 JP 2000-249057 A

  However, in the conventional cryopump system 100, maintenance is performed for the number of cryopumps 120A to 120B provided in the chamber (three in the example shown in FIG. 4, but more than a dozen if there are many). Processing to connect the computer 104 and the modems 138A to 138C and send out the operation data is required, and it takes a long time to read the operation data from all the cryopumps into the maintenance computer 104, and the efficiency of the maintenance is lowered. There was a problem.

  In particular, the cryopumps 120A to 120C are generally disposed in a clean room. It is difficult to connect the individual modems 138A to 138C and the maintenance computer 104 in this clean room and to operate the maintenance computer 104, compared to the operation in the normal environment outside the clean room. Will be further reduced.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cryopump system and a cryopump maintenance method for improving maintenance efficiency by facilitating the capture of operation data to a maintenance computer. And

From the first aspect of the present invention, the above problem is
With multiple cryopumps,
A controller that is connected to the plurality of cryopumps and controls the plurality of cryopumps;
Provided in the controller, and data storage means for collectively storing individual operation data of the plurality of cryopumps;
A maintenance computer that performs data processing based on the operation data related to the cryopump during maintenance of the cryopump;
The present invention can be solved by a cryopump system comprising data sending means for sending the operation data from the data storage means to the maintenance computer.

The data sending means includes
Writing means connected to the data storage means and writing the operation data to a mounted recording medium;
It is desirable that the apparatus is constituted by reading means connected to the maintenance computer and reading the operation data from the mounted recording medium.

The writing means is a first card slot;
The reading means is a second card slot;
The recording medium is preferably a card-like recording medium.

  The recording medium is preferably portable.

The data sending means includes
Transmitting means connected to the data storage means and transmitting the operation data wirelessly or by wire;
It is desirable that the maintenance computer includes a receiving unit that receives the operation data transmitted from the transmitting unit.

In addition, according to another aspect of the present invention, the above problem is
Storing operation data sent from a plurality of cryopumps in the data storage means of the controller;
Sending the operation data stored in the data storage means to a maintenance computer;
It can be solved by a maintenance method of the cryopump characterized by comprising the step of processing the operation data transferred from the controller by the maintenance computer.

  According to the present invention, the individual operation data of the plurality of cryopumps are collectively stored in the data storage means provided in the controller. Therefore, during maintenance, the operation data is transferred from the data storage means provided in the controller to the maintenance computer. Are sent all at once. Therefore, it is not necessary to connect a maintenance computer to each cryopump as in the prior art, and operation data can be easily taken into the maintenance computer, and maintenance efficiency can be improved.

  Next, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a cryopump system 1A which is an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, an example is shown in which three cryopumps 20 are disposed in a chamber 12 (vacuum processing container) of a semiconductor manufacturing processing apparatus.

  In short, the cryopump system 1 </ b> A includes a cryopump 20, a main controller 3, a maintenance computer 4, and data sending means for sending operation data from the main controller 3 to the maintenance computer 4.

  The cryopump 20 is connected to the chamber 12 via the gate valve 13. The cryopump 20 is a reservoir type pump that uses physical adsorption to condense or adsorb gas molecules in the chamber 12 to capture and exhaust. The cryopump 20 has characteristics that an oil-free and clean vacuum can be obtained and that a large exhaust speed is obtained for various gases.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of a cryopump 20 applied to the cryopump system 1A. As shown in the figure, the cryopump 20 has a refrigerator 21 attached to the cryopump container 2, the first stage 22 of the refrigerator 21 is, for example, 40 to 100K, and the second stage 23 is, for example, 10 to 20K. It is set as the structure cooled by. In addition, the refrigerator 21 is provided with a motor 31 for driving a displacer disposed therein.

  A first stage temperature sensor 24 and a width shield 6 are attached to the first stage 22 of the refrigerator 21 with good thermal contact. A louver 8 is attached to the radiation shield 6 on the side of the intake port 7 with good thermal contact. Furthermore, the two-stage temperature sensor 9, the cryopanel 10, and the charcoal panel 25 are attached to the two-stage stage 23 with good thermal contact.

  The second stage 23 is provided with a two-stage temperature sensor 9, and the temperature of the second stage 23 is measured by the two-stage temperature sensor 9. Similarly, a first stage temperature sensor 24 is provided in the first stage 22, and the temperature of the first stage temperature sensor 24 is measured by the first stage temperature sensor 24.

  The chamber 12 and the inlet 7 of the cryopump 20 are connected via a gate valve 13. Water and carbon dioxide entering from the chamber 12 through the gate valve 13 are condensed by the louver 8 and the radiation shield 6, argon and nitrogen are condensed by the cryopanel 10, and hydrogen, neon and helium are placed on the charcoal panel 25. It is adsorbed and exhausted by the activated carbon 26 adhered thereto.

  The cryopump container 2 is equipped with a vacuum sensor 15 for measuring the degree of vacuum inside, a purge valve 28 connected to a purge gas supply pipe 27 such as dry nitrogen, and a roughing valve 30 connected to a roughing pump 29. ing. Furthermore, in order to shorten the regeneration time of the cryopump described later, a band heater 32 is disposed outside the cryopump container 2 and heaters 33 and 34 are provided on the first stage 22 and the second stage 23, respectively. Is provided.

  The two-stage temperature sensor 9, the vacuum sensor 15, the first-stage temperature sensor 24, the purge valve 28, the roughing valve 30, the motor 31, the band heater 32, and the wiring connected to the heaters 33 and 34 are one cable 35. And connected to the main controller 3 (see FIG. 1).

  The gas exhausted from the chamber 12 to the cryopump 20 configured as described above is stored on each panel by condensation or adsorption as described above. However, since the exhaust performance of the cryopump 20 decreases as the amount of storage increases, an operation called regeneration for discharging the gas stored in the cryopump 20 and restoring the performance of the cryopump 20 is performed. Necessary.

  This regeneration work is performed as follows, for example. First, the main controller 3 closes the gate valve 13 and then stops the operation of the refrigerator 21. Subsequently, the main controller 3 opens the purge valve 28 and introduces a purge gas such as dry nitrogen into the cryopump and activates the heaters 32 to 34. As a result, the pressure and temperature in the cryopump container 2 are increased, and the condensed and adsorbed gas is vaporized and desorbed, and is discharged together with the purge gas to the outside of the cryopump through a safety valve (not shown).

  When the main controller 3 determines that each panel configured with good thermal contact with the first and second stage stages 22 and 23 has reached approximately room temperature based on signals from the first and second stage temperature sensors 9 and 24, The purge valve 28 is closed, the roughing valve 30 is opened, and roughing in the cryopump is started. When the maintenance computer 4 determines that the vacuum sensor 15 has roughly roughed the pressure, the maintenance computer 4 closes the roughing valve 30 and restarts the operation of the refrigerator 21. When the maintenance computer 4 determines that each panel has been cooled to a temperature required for the exhaust performance of the cryopump 20 based on signals from the first and second stage temperature sensors 9 and 24, the maintenance computer 4 performs the regeneration process. The exhaust process for exhausting the gas in the chamber 12 is started.

  Here, returning to FIG. 1 again, the explanation of the cryopump system 1A will be continued. Each cryopump 20 configured as described above is connected to the main controller 3 by a cable 35. In this embodiment, the cryopump 20 is connected to the main controller 3 in a star shape.

  The main controller 3 includes a central processing unit 16 (hereinafter referred to as CPU), a storage device 17 (corresponding to data storage means described in claims), and a first card slot 18 (writing means described in claims). Or the like). The CPU 16, the storage device 17, and the first card slot 18 are connected by a bus line 14.

  The CPU 16 controls the above-described exhaust processing and regeneration processing for each cryopump 20 based on signals sent from various sensors provided in each cryopump 20. Further, the storage device 17 stores operation data generated by the CPU 16 based on a signal sent from each cryopump 20. The first card slot 18 is loaded with the compact flash card 5 as a recording medium. (Compact Flash is a registered trademark).

  The maintenance computer 4 stores a predetermined program for performing maintenance processing, and performs data processing necessary for predetermined maintenance based on the input operation data. The maintenance computer 4 is provided with a second card slot 19 (corresponding to the reading means described in claims), and the compact flash card 5 is mounted in the second card slot 19. The compact flash card 5 has a compact shape (for example, 42.8 mm × 36.4 mm × 3.3 mm) and is portable.

  The operation data processed during maintenance by the maintenance computer 4 includes time data, motor forward / reverse rotation data, alarm history data, regeneration history data, compressor-related data, parameter setting value data, and the like. .

  Among these, the time data and the forward / reverse rotation data are data on the driving state of the motor 31 provided in the cryopump 20. The alarm history data is data indicating a history of alarms issued when an abnormality is detected by outputs from various sensors provided in the cryopump 20. The reproduction history data is a history of signals output from various sensors during the above-described reproduction processing. The compressor related data is data of a compressor that supplies the refrigerant to the refrigerator 21. Further, set value data of various parameters which are manually set to drive the cryopump 20 are also included in the operation data.

  The operation data including the various data described above is generated in the CPU 16 based on signals from various sensors mainly sent from the cryopump 20 via the cable 35 and stored in the storage device 17. At this time, a plurality of cryopumps 20 are connected to the main controller 3, and operation data is different for each cryopump 20. For this reason, when storing the operation data in the storage device 17, each cryopump 20 is associated with the operation data of the cryopump 20. Therefore, an identifier for identifying each cryopump 20 is included in the header portion of each operation data. Is recorded.

  In the cryopump system 1 </ b> A having the above-described configuration, when performing maintenance on the cryopump 20, first, the compact flash card 5 is inserted into the first card slot 18. Then, the operation data of each cryopump 20 stored in the storage device 17 (in this embodiment, three operation data corresponding to the three cryopumps 20) are simultaneously recorded on the compact flash card 5 at once.

  The compact flash card 5 is inserted into the second card slot 19 of the maintenance computer 4. Then, the operation data recorded on the compact flash card 5 is sent to the maintenance computer 4 in a lump and read.

  At this time, in this embodiment, the main controller 3 and the maintenance computer 4 are arranged in a normal environment, not in a clean room. For this reason, the operation of recording the operation data from the main controller 3 (storage device 17) to the compact flash card 5 and the process of sending (reading) the operation data from the compact flash card 5 to the maintenance computer 4 are also performed in a normal environment. Is called. Therefore, compared to the process of sending operation data from the modems 138A to 138C to the maintenance computer 104 in the conventional clean room (see FIG. 4), according to this embodiment, the process of sending the operation data to the maintenance computer 4 is easily performed. be able to.

  Further, as described above, in this embodiment, the individual operation data of the plurality of cryopumps 20 are collectively stored in the storage device 17 provided in the main controller 3, so that the operation data is stored in the main controller 3 ( It is possible to record from the storage device 17) to the compact flash card 5 collectively, and to allow the maintenance computer 4 to read operation data from the compact flash card 5 collectively. Therefore, it is not necessary to connect the maintenance computer 104 to the modems 138A to 138C of the individual cryopumps 120A to 120C as in the prior art, and it becomes easy to capture operation data to the maintenance computer 4 and improve maintenance efficiency. it can.

  In the above-described embodiment, the first card slot 18 for writing operation data to the mounted compact flash card 5 as data transmission means for transmitting operation data from the main controller 3 (storage device 17) to the maintenance computer 4 is shown. Although an example using (writing means) and the second card slot 19 (reading means) for reading operation data from the mounted compact flash card 5 is shown, the data sending means is not limited to this.

  For example, as in the cryopump system 1B of the modification shown in FIG. 3, by providing the transmitting device 36 instead of the first card slot 18 and providing the receiving device 37 instead of the second card slot 19, wirelessly The operation data may be sent from the main controller 3 (storage device 17) to the maintenance computer 4. Alternatively, the main controller 3 and the maintenance computer 4 may be connected by a cable or the like, and the operation data may be transmitted from the main controller 3 (storage device 17) to the maintenance computer 4 via the cable or the like. Furthermore, in the configuration of the present embodiment, an example in which the compact flash card 5 is used as the recording medium has been shown. However, instead of the compact flash card 5, another magnetic recording medium (magnetic disk or the like) or optical recording medium (optical disk or the like) is used. ) May be used.

  In the above-described embodiment, the configuration in which the three cryopumps 20 are connected to the maintenance computer 4 is shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and as will be apparent from the above description, a large number of cryopumps 20 are provided. The effect is further increased by connecting the cryopump 20 to the maintenance computer 4.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a cryopump system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example of a cryopump used in a cryopump system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram illustrating a modification of the cryopump system illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a cryopump system as an example of the prior art.

Explanation of symbols

1A, 1B Cryo pump system 2 Cryo pump vessel 3 Main controller 4 Maintenance computer 5 Compact flash card 9 Two-stage temperature sensor 10 Cry panel 12 Vacuum processing device 13 Gate valve 15 Vacuum sensor 16 CPU
17 Storage Device 18 First Card Slot 19 Second Card Slot 20 Cryopump 21 Refrigerator 22 First Stage 23 Second Stage 24 First Stage Temperature Sensor 31 Motor 36 Transmitter 37 Receiver

Claims (6)

With multiple cryopumps,
A controller that is connected to the plurality of cryopumps and controls the plurality of cryopumps;
Provided in the controller, and data storage means for collectively storing individual operation data of the plurality of cryopumps;
A maintenance computer that performs data processing based on the operation data related to the cryopump during maintenance of the cryopump;
A cryopump system comprising: data sending means for sending the operation data from the data storage means to the maintenance computer. The data sending means
Writing means connected to the data storage means and writing the operation data to a mounted recording medium;
2. The cryopump system according to claim 1, wherein the cryopump system is connected to the maintenance computer and comprises reading means for reading the operation data from the mounted recording medium. The writing means is a first card slot;
The reading means is a second card slot;
The cryopump system according to claim 2, wherein the recording medium is a card-shaped recording medium.   4. The cryopump system according to claim 2, wherein the recording medium is portable. The data sending means
Transmitting means connected to the data storage means and transmitting the operation data wirelessly or by wire;
The cryopump system according to claim 1, further comprising: a receiving unit that is provided in the maintenance computer and receives the operation data transmitted from the transmitting unit. Storing operation data sent from a plurality of cryopumps in the data storage means of the controller;
Sending the operation data stored in the data storage means to a maintenance computer;
And a step of processing the operation data received from the controller by the maintenance computer.

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