JP2020070867A - Valve block and fluid container - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a valve block which enables a reduction of a content volume of a piping system and the number of components.SOLUTION: A valve block 1 includes: a valve 30 having a first port 41 and a second port 42 where a fluid flows out or in; and a base plate 10 which is disposed so that the valve 30 is detachably attached to a front surface 10a. The base plate 10 has: a first passage 11 which is formed penetrating through the base plate 10 so that one end 11a communicates with the first port 41 and the other end 11b opens on a back surface 10b; and a second passage 12 which is formed so that one end 12a communicates with the second port 42 and the other end 12b opens on the front surface 10a.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a valve block and a fluid container.

  Conventionally, as one step of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, there is a stacking step of stacking a processing gas on an atomic layer (for example, ALD method). This processing gas is gasified by vaporization or sublimation when a semiconductor manufacturing material is stored in a fluid container in a liquid or solid state and heated by a heater or the like. Then, the processing gas is supplied from the fluid container to the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus via a valve, a joint, a pipe and the like.

  This type of fluid container includes a container main body and a lid, and a pipe communicating with the storage space of the container main body is provided on the lid so as to project. A manifold block, a valve, or the like is provided in the pipe. It is connected (see Patent Document 1).

  Gasified semiconductor manufacturing materials are extremely expensive, and there is a demand for shortening the piping system (or reducing the internal volume of the piping system) in order to reduce the residual amount and supply time. Further, it is also required that the gasified processing gas is not recondensed, and for example, a fluid container as disclosed in Patent Documents 2-3 is already known.

  Specifically, Patent Documents 2 and 3 describe that a manifold block having a plurality of flow paths is directly attached to a lid of a fluid container. In Patent Document 3, the flow path block is housed in a housing groove formed in the lid to reduce the internal volume and improve the thermal uniformity. In the fluid container of Patent Document 1, the heater is arranged in the manifold block indirectly attached to the lid, and in the fluid container of Patent Document 2, the heater is arranged in the manifold block directly attached to the lid. That is, in the fluid container of Patent Document 3, it is described that the heater is arranged on the lid, the valve, or the like.

JP, 2009-138837, A JP 2004-063833 A JP, 2011-112196, A

  However, even with the fluid containers shown in Patent Documents 2 and 3, there is room for further reducing the internal volume of the piping system, and since the number of parts is large, it takes time to assemble or disassemble, and further miniaturization is achieved. It is desired to improve heat transferability and assembly workability.

  Then, this invention is made | formed in view of the above subject, and an object of this invention is to provide the valve block and the fluid container which can reduce the internal volume of a piping system and can also reduce the number of parts.

(1) One aspect of the present invention is a valve block, which has a valve having a first port and a second port through which a fluid flows out or flows in, and a base plate on which the valve is detachably arranged. The base plate has one end communicating with the first port and the other end penetratingly formed so as to open to the back surface, and the other end communicating with the second port. Also has a second passage formed so as to open to the surface.
(2) In the aspect of (1) above, the base plate may further include a pipe or a joint communicating with the other end of the first passage.
(3) In the above aspect (1) or (2), the base plate may further include a pipe or a joint communicating with the other end of the second passage.
(4) In any one of the above aspects (1) to (3), the distance between the one end of the first passage and the one end of the second passage is equal to the one end of the second passage. The distance may be greater than or equal to the distance between the other end and the other end.
(5) In any one of the above aspects (1) to (4), a plurality of the valves may be provided, and the first passages and the second passages may be formed in the same number as the number of the valves. Good.
(6) Another aspect of the present invention is a fluid container having an opening and a container main body for storing a fluid, and a lid for closing the opening, the above-mentioned (1) to (5) The valve block described in any one of the above is attached as the lid.
(7) In the aspect of (6) above, the fluid container may include a heating unit, and the heating unit may integrally heat the fluid container and the valve block.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a valve block and a fluid container that can reduce the internal volume of a piping system and reduce the number of parts.

It is a fragmentary sectional view showing a fluid container of an embodiment concerning the present invention. It is a top view showing a fluid container of an embodiment concerning the present invention. It is a top view showing only the surface of a lid of an embodiment concerning the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the embodiments of the present specification, the same members are designated by the same reference numerals throughout.

  First, the fluid container 3 of the embodiment according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a fluid container 3 of an embodiment according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the fluid container 3 according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the surface 10a of the lid body 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention. It should be noted that in FIG. 1, only one system of the flow path connected to the valve 30 is indicated by a symbol.

  The fluid container 3 shown in FIG. 1 is a container in which a metal material which is melted or sublimated by heating and gasified (vaporized) is stored as a fluid. Further, the fluid container 3 of the present embodiment is configured to supply the gasified metal together with the pressure-feeding gas (carrier gas) to the processing apparatus of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. Therefore, the fluid container 3 includes a lid body 1 and a container body 2, and the entire portion including a part of the valve 30 is covered with a heating unit 4 such as a heater.

  The lid 1 is formed of a disc-shaped base plate 10. On the surface 10a of the base plate 10, a plurality of valves 30A, 30B, 30C (hereinafter, referred to as "valve 30" when it is not necessary to distinguish between 30A, 30B, 30C) are removably arranged side by side. ..

  The container body 2 has an opening on the upper surface and stores a fluid, and is formed in a bottomed cylindrical shape. The container body 2 is attached with a lid 1 via a seal member so as to close the opening on the upper surface, and is fastened with fastening bolts SB or the like, and the fluid container 3 has an airtight structure for storing fluid. There is.

  The lid 1 and the container body 2 are made of stainless steel or the like having excellent heat resistance and corrosion resistance. Examples of the metal material to be gasified include organic metals such as tetrahydrofuran, triethoxyborane, triethoxyarsine, trimethylaluminum, trimethylgallium, tetraethoxysilane, silicon tetrachloride and arsenic trichloride.

  The plurality of valves 30 arranged on the base plate 10 have a primary-side first port 41 and a secondary-side second port 42 through which a fluid flows out or flows in. In this embodiment, for example, a normally-closed air-operated valve is used that closes the flow between the first port 41 and the second port 42 with a valve when there is no open signal from the control device. Although a diaphragm is used as the valve body, other types of on-off valves and regulating valves can be adopted.

  Among the plurality of valves 30, for example, the valve 30A is for allowing the fluid to flow into the fluid container 3, the valve 30B is for allowing the fluid to flow from the fluid container 3, and the valve 30C is for pumping the fluid to the fluid container 3. It is assigned to supply gas.

  In addition, it is preferable to arrange three valves 30 side by side because it saves space, but it is also possible to arrange them on concentric circles at equal intervals. It is better to arrange them so that they all fit inside.

  A solenoid valve for controlling the drive air for opening and closing the valves 30A, 30B, 30C, a control signal for controlling the solenoid valve, and a detection signal of the liquid level gauge 5 are not shown in the figure, but are not shown in the figures, and a host control panel of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is used. Output from and input to. In addition, the pressure-feeding gas supplied to the valve 30C includes, for example, active or inactive gas such as hydrogen, nitrogen, helium, and argon. The pressure-feeding gas is heated to a high temperature, and the pressure-feeding gas also forcibly vaporizes or sublimates part of the metal material to be gasified. Further, the flow rate and pressure of the fluid delivered from the fluid container 3 are adjusted by an integrated gas system (not shown) or the like, and the fluid is supplied to a further downstream semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

  By the way, since the valve 30 and the base plate 10 of the lid 1 are integrally attached to or detached from the container body 2, they will be referred to as a valve block 1.

  The base plate 10 has a first passage 11 and a second passage 12 formed therein. One end 11a of the first passage 11 communicates with the first port 41 of the valve 30, and the other end 11b is open to the back surface 10b. .. That is, the first passage 11 is formed so as to penetrate from the front surface 10a of the base plate 10 to the back surface 10b.

  A pipe 21 welded to the base plate 10 communicates with the other end 11b side of the first passage 11, and the tip of the pipe 21 is immersed in the fluid stored in the container body 2. However, instead of the pipe 21, a joint may be welded, or a bubbling nozzle, a pressure feeding nozzle, a liquid material supply nozzle, and the like may be provided. Further, in the case of the outflow valve 30A, these need not be connected.

  On the other hand, one end 12a of the second passage 12 communicates with the second port 42 of the valve 30, and the other end 12b is also open to the surface 10a. That is, the second passage 12 is formed in a substantially V shape or a U shape so that both openings are open to the surface 10 a of the base plate 10. Since the other end 12b is open to the surface 10a side in this way, for example, when closing the other end 12b, the volume from the second port 42 to the closed end of the other end 12b, that is, the second passage 12 The volume of can be minimized.

  A pipe 22 communicates with the other end 12 b side of the second passage 12 via a joint 23 attached to the base plate 10. However, instead of the joint 23, the pipe 22 may be directly welded. As a result, the pipe 21 and the first passage 11 can communicate with the second passage 12 and the pipe 22 via the valve 30. The separation distance (opening distance) D1 between the one end 11a of the first passage 11 and the one end 12a of the second passage 12 is larger than the opening distance D2 between the one end 12a and the other end 12b of the second passage 12. Large or equal shaped. As a result, the volume of the second passage 12 can be reduced.

  The first passages 11 and the second passages 12 are formed in the same number as the number of the valves 30 (30A, 30B, 30C). At this time, the valve block 1 has the pipes 22A, 22B, 22C and the joints 23A, 23B, 23C respectively corresponding to the plurality of second passages 12, but the pipe 21 has a plurality of first passages. Corresponding to 11, it is not necessary to have each. Further, the valve 30 and the joint 23 are directly attached to the surface 10a of the base plate 10 without a gasket.

  If necessary, a joint for attaching the liquid level gauge 5 may be connected to the base plate 10 by welding or the like, and a through hole H5 through which the liquid level gauge 5 is inserted may be formed. Further, on the surface 10a of the base plate 10, as shown in FIG. 3, in addition to the above, a screw hole M3 for fixing the valve 30, a screw hole M2 for fixing the joint 23, and the lid body 1 are provided. A counterbore hole H1 for the fastening bolt SB fixed to 2 is also formed.

Here, a case where the fluid container 3 is used as a fluid supply means will be described.
It is assumed that the fluid to be supplied from the inflow valve 30A has previously flowed into the fluid container 3 and is stored therein.

  The pressurized gas is injected through the pipe 21 from the pressurized gas valve 30C, and the gasified fluid is bubbled. When the internal pressure of the fluid container 3 is increased by the pressure-fed gas, the gasified fluid is sent to the valve body through the first passage 11 formed in the base plate 10 and the first port 41 of the outflow valve 30A. When drive air or an open signal for opening the valve body is sent from the control device to the valve 30A to open the valve, the fluid further flows into the second port 42 of the valve 30A and the second passage 12 formed in the base plate 10. Is sent to the pipe 22 (22A) and is supplied to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus or the like.

  After that, when the liquid level gauge 5 detects the storage lower limit, the inflow valve 30B is opened, and new fluid is supplied until the liquid level gauge 5 detects the storage upper limit. After that, the same operation is repeated. During this time, the fluid container 3 is kept constant by the heating unit 4 and the thermometer.

  As described above, in the valve block 1 of the embodiment according to the present invention, the valve 30 having the first port 41 and the second port 42 through which the fluid flows out and in, and the valve 30 is detachably arranged on the surface 10a. The base plate 10 has a first passage 11 formed so that one end 11a communicates with the first port 41 and the other end 11b penetrates so as to open to the back surface 10b. The second passage 12 is formed so as to communicate with the two ports 42 and the other end 12b is also opened to the surface 10a. As a result, the number of parts forming the piping system can be reduced, and the internal volume of the piping system can be reduced. Further, since the fluid container 3 and the valve 30 are integrally heated by the heating unit 4, the temperature of the piping system can be kept close to a constant value. Therefore, the temperature of the fluid in the piping system is maintained, and there is no risk of the gasified fluid condensing. Further, it is not necessary to dispose another heating unit directly on the valve 30.

  Even if the valve 30 fails, only the valve 30 can be easily removed from the base plate 10, and the pipe 22 and the joint 23 can be individually removed as needed.

  Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims. It can be changed.

  Although the valve 30 is a diaphragm valve in the above embodiment, it may be a so-called lift valve, needle valve, ball valve, gate valve, or the like.

  In the above embodiment, the fluid to be stored may be liquid or gas instead of molten metal.

  In the above-described embodiment, the valves 30 for three applications, that is, the outflow valve 30A, the inflow valve 30B, and the pressure-feeding gas valve 30C are attached, but the number and the applications of the valves 30 are not limited to this, and for example, For disposal, only one inflow valve 30B may be provided, only two outflow valves 30A and pressure feeding valves 30C may be provided, or four or more may be provided. Further, it is possible to use such a method that one of the plurality of valves 30 installed is not opened and closed.

1 Valve block (lid)
2 container body 3 fluid container 4 heating part 5 liquid level gauge 10 base plate, 10a front surface, 10b back surface 11 first passage, 11a one end, 11b other end 12 second passage, 12a one end, 12b other end 21 piping,
22,22A, 22B, 22C Piping 23,23A, 23B, 23C Joint 30 Valve, 30A Outflow valve, 30B Inflow valve, 30C Pressure feed gas valve 41 1st port, 42 2nd port

Claims (7)

A valve having a first port and a second port through which fluid flows out or in,
A base plate on which the valve is detachably arranged,
The base plate is
A first passage having one end communicating with the first port and the other end penetrating so as to open to the back surface;
A second passage formed so that one end communicates with the second port and the other end also opens to the surface.
A first passage communicating with the first port and having one end on the front surface and the other end opening penetrating on the back surface;
A second passage formed so that one end communicates with the second port and the other end also opens to the surface.
A valve block characterized in that. The base plate further includes a pipe or a joint communicating with the other end of the first passage,
The valve block according to claim 1, wherein: The base plate further includes a pipe or a joint communicating with the other end of the second passage,
The valve block according to claim 1, wherein the valve block is a valve block. A separation distance between the one end of the first passage and the one end of the second passage is not less than a separation distance between the one end and the other end of the second passage,
The valve block according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: A plurality of the valves,
The number of the first passages and the number of the second passages are equal to the number of the valves,
The valve block according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: A fluid container having an opening and a container body for storing a fluid, and a lid body for closing the opening,
The valve block according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is attached as the lid body,
A fluid container characterized by the above. The fluid container includes a heating unit,
The heating unit integrally heats the fluid container and the valve block,
The fluid container according to claim 6, wherein:

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