JP3508533B2 - Fan filter unit monitoring and control device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for monitoring and controlling the operation of a fan filter unit (hereinafter referred to as "FFU") in a clean room by a network, and in particular, an individual control wiring is required for each FFU from the center. FFF that can control FFU individually without being affected by the power supply and can supply stable DC power to the control note corresponding to each FFU without being affected by the length of the power line and the distribution of the power load.
U monitoring and control equipment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a clean room in the semiconductor industry, a large number of FFUs having a high-performance filter and a fan integrated therein are installed in a distributed constant manner on the ceiling. The effective operation of this FFU group controls the air flow in the clean room and maintains the specified cleanliness. To optimize the environment and services in the clean room according to the goal, and at the same time realize flexible response and energy saving,
Fine-grained control is required for each FFU. A typical example of conventional FFU control will be described with reference to FIG. This method is called a client-server method via a remote station, and is used for grouping multiple
One remote station manages the FFU for each group, and each remote station and the host computer are connected by network wiring. Each remote station is installed in the air conditioning machine room, and is connected to each FFU in each group installed on the ceiling of the clean room by six FFU input / output wires. The host computer commands each remote station to perform FFU control in group units according to the requirements of the work environment. Each remote station controls each FFU in the group based on the received FFU control command.

[0003]

However, at present, it is difficult to realize remote individual control from several hundreds of FFUs from the center in terms of control wiring work and the number of processing points on the central side. . Especially, in order to achieve and maintain cleanliness, many FFUs are installed, which naturally consumes a lot of power.
Also, due to the layout of equipment suitable for semiconductor manufacturing, the number of FFUs often increases and decreases, and the layout changes.
There is a request to change the function. Currently, the number of I / O control points of the control system and the amount of control wiring increase significantly, which increases costs, so group them in blocks such as zones.
It controls groups. Grouping FFU controls makes it difficult to control individual FFU units. In other words, there is a problem that it is difficult to achieve energy saving while optimizing because individual flexible and detailed control cannot be performed. A microcomputer (MPU) performs processing based on commands from the central monitoring and control unit in the control box of the FFU main unit, and processing for sending the operating and failure states of the FFU to the central monitoring and control unit. As for the DC power supply of, the DC voltage was made from AC100V by the DC power supply circuit mounted on each FFU main body. Such a DC power supply method has a problem that the size of each control node is increased and the cost is increased. It is an object of the present invention to provide an FFU monitoring and control device that ensures flexibility with respect to the number of FFUs, the arrangement, and addition / change of functions and realizes energy saving.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention of claim 1 is a device for monitoring and controlling the operation of a large number of FFUs installed in order to keep a clean room at a predetermined cleanliness level by a network. A network interface for connecting a network between the monitoring control means for monitoring the FFU operating state and the failure state and controlling the start / stop of the fan, and the processing for performing communication processing and program processing. Source, amplifier, DC power supply, and control node in which a board on which an input / output terminal is mounted is housed in a case, and a common source D that supplies a DC voltage to each control node.
A C power supply and a unit control box provided in the FFU, which has a main power supply circuit for starting / stopping operation from a control node and a state monitoring circuit for the control node to take out an operation and failure state signal as a network signal The control node case is attached to each FFU main body, and the control node and the unit control box are connected by a connector. According to a second aspect of the invention, in the invention of the first aspect, the control node includes a control node DC power supply which converts a DC voltage supplied from the source DC power supply into a DC voltage to be used and supplies the DC voltage. The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1, which further comprises a monitor for monitoring an operating state and a failure state of the FFU and configuring a means for instructing the monitoring control means at least for each FFU to start / stop the operation. ,
The monitor is configured to display the layout of the FFU installed on the ceiling of the clean room on the screen and to select the start / stop of the operation by selecting a specific FFU on the screen. Furthermore, in the invention of claim 4, in the invention of claim 3, the monitor is configured to display the operating state and the failure state of the FFU in different colors.

[0005]

[Function] With the above configuration, an inexpensive field LAN (twisted pair transmission) is constructed in each FFU, and the target FFU is LA.
Let it be a node on N. Each node is configured with an autonomous distributed control terminal using an inexpensive commercially available autonomous decentralized neuron chip. Object-oriented communication method is used for communication of each node to realize mutual interoperability. That is, the object-oriented description, network variables as communication data based on the description, and the FFU connected to each node by the built-in program of each node.
Distributed control by the interoperability of nodes without depending on the central software.

The effects of this method are as follows. (1) The control wiring for the target device is shared by the field LAN, and the number is significantly reduced. (2) Direct process input / output points via the remote station to the control system system become serial signals in network variable units.
The number of direct input / output points such as DO, AI, AO is eliminated. This also eliminates the need for remote stations. (3) Since the control is performed for each node, individual control of FFU alone and group control are facilitated, and fine air conditioning control can be performed, thereby saving energy. In addition, the control wiring can be greatly reduced, the FFU control wiring construction cost can be greatly reduced compared to the conventional method, and the maintenance becomes easy. (4) Higher system reliability and host downsizing are realized by autonomous decentralization of nodes. Furthermore, it is possible to flexibly deal with increase / decrease of nodes, addition / change of functions, and change of points. (5) Object-oriented network variables and their standardization, realization of network openness by establishing interoperability policy, and support of multi-vendor environment are possible. (6) It becomes easy for field devices such as FFU to join and leave the network.

The combination of the source DC power supply and the power supply circuit based on the regulator system of the predetermined DC of each node stabilizes the D without being affected by the length of the power supply line and the distribution of the power supply load.
C power source can be supplied compactly and inexpensively.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an FFU control system according to the present invention based on a local distributed control system. Each FFU main unit is equipped with a control node that controls the start / stop of the fan and monitors the status / fault. Each control node is connected to the host computer (hereinafter referred to as the host PC) via a distributed PC interface by network wiring. Note) is connected to.

The distributed control environment will be described. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of an object-oriented distributed control environment. FIG. 3 shows the data flow between the host PC system, the control node, and the FFU. The network variable object handles network variables, which are object types of mutual communication data between devices on the network, as communication data, and has a data type declared by an application program. The network variables include standard network variables that are standardly defined and those that are individually defined by the user.
SNVT (IN, OUT) is an abbreviation for standard predefined network variables (Standard Network Variable Types). (I
N) is a network variable input to the device from the network, and (OUT) is a variable output from the device to the network. The source and destination of network variables for communicating between devices are determined in advance by software for each variable and the connection is stored for each device. The connection between the source and destination of this network variable is called a soft connection or network binding.

The communication network (twisted pair line, power line carrier) is a communication medium for transmitting and receiving network variables as communication data, and includes twisted pair line, power line carrier, and the like. PCLTA is a personal computer (PC) on the network
Is a network device, it functions as a network interface between the network driver of the application data of the PC and the network. An obfuscated control node means a device on the network,
In order to communicate without being aware of the physical specifications of each control node, various information held by the device is made an object and abstracted. DDE (Direct Date Exchange) is a server for enabling direct data exchange between network variable data files and PC application data files.

The network DB is a database of network variables communicated on the network and is created at the time of soft connection and installed in the PC. The network communication data in the PC is exchanged with the PC application via the DDE by referring to the network DB. The SNVT declaration is a part of the software description of the neuron C language in the control node, and declares the input SNVT and the output SNVT used in the corresponding node in advance. This logically connects the node and the network. The I / O declaration is the same as the neuron C language software article in the control node.
The output contents and specification pin NO are declared in advance. As a result, the node and the target process are logically connected. The contents of this input / output are made into objects as standard, and it works just by declaring the I / O pin No. which is compatible with the process side by software.

The neuron C task description uses the C language called Neuron C for the application program of the control node. It is based on ANSI C and has expanded the functions such as I / O function objectization, network communication, and scheduler when an event occurs in order to realize a distributed network. Network variables and I / O objects are declared and defined in the program. The start / stop object declares its use as an I / O object for realizing the individual start and stop of each FFU from the control node.
When the start / stop SNVT declared by the network is received by each FFU controller, pulse contact signals are output from the node for start and stop. The control node receives the contact signal of the operating condition (operation, stop) and the failure signal from the individual FFU of the state change and the object, and treats this as the state change object and the I / O object of the fault object and declares it. It also outputs on the network as the declared output SNVT.

The PCLTA module functions as a host node, inputs signals on the network side, and outputs signals on the host PC side to the network side. The contents of this input / output receive status signals and failure signals from each node (node module) of the FFU and transfer them to the host PC, and also receive start / stop control signals for each FFU from the host PC, Call to the side. Each node receives only the corresponding signal and controls the start / stop of the FFU.

The control node receives only the control signal for starting / stopping the individual FFU transmitted from the PCLTA module to the network side, that is, the corresponding FFU control signal, and
I / O is a pulse contact that turns ON / OFF the FU.
Output from the O terminal, input the FFU ON / OFF status binary contact from the IO terminal to output the ON / OFF status signal to the network side, and input the FFU failure binary contact from the IO terminal to the network. Outputs a failure signal to the side.

FIG. 4 shows the appearance and circuit layout of the control node module. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the control node module. The control node module of this embodiment has two
It is configured to control the FFU fan of the FFU body. each
The circuit is mounted on the board housed in the case for attaching to the casing of the FFU main body, and the circuit is a partial module that performs the central function of the control node and is a control board that is mounted on the motherboard in a plug-in structure. , A FFU input / output conversion processing unit (I / O) which processes a relay operation signal for turning on / off a fan control relay and an ON / OFF state of a relay for monitoring a fan as a fan state signal.
Processing), power supply to each circuit, and turning on the FFU main unit fan
A DC power supply unit for supplying power to the ON / OFF control relay,
FFU for connecting a cable to the condition monitoring circuit of the FFU main unit
It comprises an input connector (input TB) and an FFU output connector (output TB), a network connection connector for connecting the control node to the network, and a power supply connector for connecting a common source DC power supply to the DC power supply unit. Here, the control board is composed of a neuron chip for communicating with the host PC, a ROM storing a program, and a transceiver (network (NW) interface circuit) connected to a transmission line of the network.
The Nyuron chip has a communication protocol (LonTalk protocol) implemented as firmware, and is made up of three CPUs that process media access, network, and I / O applications with high efficiency. LonTal
In the k protocol, OSI is a 7-layer protocol model, which has good interoperability, can support various media, and has good communication efficiency by packet communication.

In FIG. 5, the SNVT as a packet signal from the network is received and decoded by the communication processing of the neuron chip via the transceiver, and the application program processing and the I / O processing are executed. Output (individual start / stop signal) to process equipment such as FFU is issued as FFU ON / OFF command via signal amplification circuit (contact output). The I / O process receives the ON / OFF status of the FFU as a contact signal, and the program detects the status / failure change event and executes the SNVT output processing to the network, performs the coding processing in the communication processing, and executes it via the transceiver. Output to the network as a packet signal.

FIG. 6 shows a power supply system for each node by the control node DC power supply of the FFU monitoring and controlling apparatus according to the present invention. Source DC power source is required by each control node D
Supply DC higher than C. Source DC power supply is DC5V
From a variable voltage power supply of 12V to 12V, the voltage is set to 5VDC or more at each node in consideration of the length of the power supply line when supplying to each node and the voltage drop condition of the load current.
Each node power supply is of a regulator type with an output of DC5V, and outputs a stable DC5V without voltage fluctuation by inputting a DC voltage of DC5V or higher. According to the DC power source of the regulator system, the voltage is lowered by a transformer from AC 100V, and the DC voltage is reduced by the rectifying circuit, the smoothing circuit and the stabilizing circuit.
It can be made smaller and less expensive than the method of obtaining 5V. Here, the communication unit includes a network connection transceiver and a communication processing unit (Neuron chip). PI / O department
The FFU input / output conversion processing unit. The process unit is the control box of the FFU main unit.

The control node module and the state monitoring circuit section of the FFU main unit are connected by a cable for controlling the start / stop of the fan and a cable for fetching the fan state signal of each FFU main unit, as shown in FIG. The control node module is provided with a start contact (200Va contact) and a stop contact (200Vb contact) of the FFU start / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A that operates at single-phase 200V. The starting contact is
It is a normally open contact that turns on by the BO signal (FFU input command), and the stop contact is turned on by the stop BO signal (FFU off command).
It is a normally closed contact that operates in FF. FFU via stop contact
Wiring for self-holding the start / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A is provided. As shown in FIG. 8, the outgoing BO signal / stopping BO signal is an ON signal at the time of rising when changing from 0 to 1, and an OFF signal at the falling when changing from 1 to 0. The starting contact (200Va contact) and the stopping contact ( 200Vb contact) is operated.

The control box of the FFU main unit is a main contact (88A) inserted in the main power supply circuit (three-phase 200V) of the FFU fan.
It consists of a single-phase 200V electromagnetic contactor circuit of the FFU start / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A and a status monitoring circuit for monitoring the status of the FFU fan. The FFU start / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A is energized by turning on the start contact of the control node module, starts the FFU fan by turning on the main contact, and starts / stops the FFU via the stop contact and the self-holding contact. The energization of the electromagnetic contactor for stop 88A is maintained. When the stop BO signal is input, the stop contact turns off and the FFU start / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A
When the main contact is turned off, the FFU fan stops.

A thermal relay 49A for detecting a failure temperature rise of the FFU fan motor is inserted in the main power circuit. When a motor failure occurs, the thermal relay 49A operates and the single phase 20
The thermal relay contact inserted in the 0V electromagnetic contactor circuit is turned off and the FFU start / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A is de-energized to FF.
U Stop the fan. The status monitoring circuit turns on the main power
/ OFF, that is, the ON / OFF signal of the contact (88A) of the magnetic contactor 88A for FFU start / stop (state B)
I) to monitor the failure state of the fan motor and ON / OFF signal (fault B) of the contact (49A) of the thermal relay 49A.
Monitor in I). FFU fan operating / fault status is status B
The I signal and the failure BI signal are input to the FFU input / output conversion processing unit via the cable and the FFU input connector of the control notebook module and processed.

The module sequence will be described.
The electromagnetic contactor 88A for FFU start / stop is directly excited by the module's 200V resistance OB pulse a contact output, self-hold is applied, and the contactor is turned on to supply three-phase 200V to the fan motor. , And start operation. At the same time, the auxiliary contact 88A is closed and the operating state BI signal is input to the module as a state change signal. Similarly, withstand 200V BO
The self-holding of the electromagnetic contactor 88A is released by the pulse b contact output, the excitation of the electromagnetic contactor is released, the contactor is opened by the force of the spring, and the three-phase 200V supply is stopped to stop the motor. At the same time, the status BI contact 88A opens and the status change signal due to the motor stop is input. If a failure occurs during operation, thermal relay 49
At the same time as A operates to release the excitation of the FFU start / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A to stop the motor, the failure contact of the thermal relay 49A is input as a failure BI to the module as a status change signal.
This series of operations is directly executed between the module and the FFU without passing through a conventional relay device. The wiring between the module and the FFU and the 200V (three-phase, single-phase) of the FFU are all connector-connected to facilitate construction and expansion. This makes it possible to install the module on the machine side from the viewpoint of wiring, which further improves workability and maintainability.

The FFU supervisory control application will be described. In Figure 2, the supervisory control application has a function to monitor the equipment of the entire clean room,
It provides a user environment for setting settings related to individual U group start / stop and control by grouping, and monitoring the status and failure of each FFU. An integrated management PC is used for monitoring and control.
Integrate host PC with Ethernet LAN. FIG. 9 shows a display example of a CRT (monitor) which constitutes a user interface (UI), and shows an operating state of the FFU. This system is configured to monitor and control two clean rooms with a single monitor. The operating state shown in the figure uses a super clean room (SCR) for ultra-high cleaning using all FFUs and some FFUs. 1 shows a clean room (CR) that is highly cleaned. The monitor specifies the position of the displayed FFU by pressing the control function button, such as the individual FFU operation button or the individual FFU stop button on the screen, so that the host PC can send the operation command related to the FFU corresponding to the control function button to the network. To notify the control node corresponding to the FFU to control the FFU. The FFU selected on the monitor screen can be individually operated or stopped. Further, the operation control can be performed by selecting the grouped FFUs in advance.

In the illustrated example, a super clean room (S
(CR), the operation of "3-7" FFU and "6-5" FFU is suspended, and other FFUs are in operation. On the other hand, the clean room (CR) is partially operated by FFU (numbered FFU). In this example, the staggered FFUs are grouped into four (11-1 ■ 11-10) (12-1 ■ 12-6) (13-1 to 13-4) (1
4-1 ■ 14-6) has been done. The grouping and individual use of FFUs can be arbitrarily designed according to the environment required by the clean room, and can be appropriately changed individually and / or in groups while monitoring the state of the FFUs. Further, it is possible to easily create an operation pattern such that the FFUs to be operated are set at regular intervals, all in a certain specific range, or a combination of every fixed interval and all the specific ranges is performed. It is also possible to create an operation pattern in advance and configure it so that the optimum operation pattern can be selected according to the required environment of the clean room. In addition, the FFU operation pattern can be changed during the working hours in the clean room, and the most efficient operation can save energy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an FF based on a local distributed control system according to the present invention.
It is a block diagram of a U control system.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a distributed control environment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data flow between a host PC system, a control node, and an FFU.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an appearance and a circuit layout of a control node module.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a control node module.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a control node power supply system.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a connection between a control node module and an FFU main body.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a start / stop signal.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of functions of a CRT (monitor).

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a network configuration in conventional FFU control.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A device for monitoring and controlling the operation of a large number of fan filter units installed in order to maintain a clean room at a predetermined cleanliness level by a network, and monitoring the operating state and failure state of the fan filter units. A monitoring control means for controlling the start / stop of the fan and a network interface for connecting the monitoring control means with a network, a processing section for performing communication processing and program processing, an amplification section, a DC power supply section, an input / output terminal A control node housing a board on which a board is mounted, a common source DC power supply for supplying a DC voltage to each control node, and a main power supply provided in the fan filter unit for starting / stopping operation from the control node State for circuits and control nodes to extract operating and fault state signals as network signals And a unit control box with a viewing circuit, fitted with a casing of the control node to each fan filter unit body, a fan filter unit monitoring control device, characterized in that the connector connects the control node and the unit control box. 2. The fan filter unit according to claim 1, wherein the control node includes a control node DC power supply that converts a DC voltage supplied from the source DC power supply into a DC voltage to be used and supplies the DC voltage. Monitoring and control equipment. 3. A monitor is provided, which comprises means for monitoring the operating state and failure state of the fan filter unit and for instructing the monitoring control means to start / stop operation of the fan filter unit at least for each fan filter unit. The layout of the fan filter units installed on the ceiling of the clean room is displayed on the screen, and a specific fan filter unit is selected on the screen to start / stop the operation.
The fan filter unit monitoring and control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stop instruction is given. 4. The fan filter unit monitoring control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the monitor displays the operating status and the failure status of the fan filter unit in different colors.