JPH10220699A - Gas supply system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stably supply gas of specified pressure to treating facilities in a gas supply system for supplying the same gas to the treating facilities arranged into two lines. SOLUTION: The gas supply stop caused by the malfunction of a solenoid closing valve is eliminated and even if the gas supply from a gas cylinder is insufficient, another gas cylinder makes up for the insufficient gas supply by eliminating a solenoid closing for cutting off gas supply, integrating two system gas supply pipes into one system gas supply pipes 7 and 7a by connecting the two system gas supply pipes through a connection pipe 3, providing gas cylinders 4 and 4a at both ends of this one system gas supply pipes and supplying gas by making the gas flow from the two gas cylinders 4 and 4a equal to each other by the flow control equipment 1 and 1a provided at both ends of the gas supply pipes 7 and 7a.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gas supply system having two systems for supplying gas to a plurality of processing facilities in the manufacture of semiconductor devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, various processing equipment such as diffusion, etching, cleaning and thin film formation are provided, and these processing equipment are supplied with various gases required for processing. I was These gases to be supplied have been supplied from one gas supply system with the same gas used for each processing facility.

FIG. 2 is a piping diagram for explaining a gas supply system according to a conventional example. This type of liquefied gas supply system is, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, processing equipment 9, 9a arranged in two rows requiring the same type of gas.
A, which supplies gas to each of the above through branch pipes 8, 8a
Gas supply pipes 7 and 7a of the gas supply system of B and B
And gas cylinders 4 and 4a stored in the cabinet 6 for storing liquefied gas, pressure regulators 5 and 5a for adjusting the pressure of gas supplied from the gas cylinders 4 and 4a, and an electromagnetic on-off valve 10 for opening and closing the gas supply pipe 7. , 10a.

[0004] The gas consumption of the processing equipment 9, 9a to which gas is supplied by the gas supply pipes 7, 7a of the A system and the B system, respectively, is different, and the electromagnetic on-off valves 10, 10a are opened each time they are used. The gas flow rate is set by operating the flow meters and the flow control valves provided in the processing facilities 9 and 9a. The calculation of the gas consumption and the opening / closing operation of the solenoid valves 10 and 10a are controlled by computer software.

[0005]

In the conventional gas supply system described above, the sequence operation is also controlled by the computer, so that the electromagnetic coil of the solenoid on-off valve is energized in accordance with a command from the computer. Even if the valve body does not operate mechanically and the opening of the gas supply pipe does not close, it can not be completely opened and gas at a predetermined pressure can not be supplied, or the current to be supplied to the electromagnetic coil due to noise is cut off Often, the valve body closed and gas could not be supplied. As described above, if the gas supply is suddenly stopped or the pressure is reduced during processing, there is a problem that the work-in-process during processing becomes defective.

In addition, in this two-system gas supply system, the difference in the gas consumption of the processing equipment of the A and B systems causes a difference in the number of times the processing equipment is stopped due to the replacement of the gas cylinder. There is a disadvantage that the processing steps cannot be coordinated smoothly.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a gas supply system capable of stably supplying a gas at a predetermined pressure to a processing facility.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A feature of the present invention is that a gas cylinder for storing a liquefied gas and a plurality of processing equipment are connected to both ends of the gas cylinder and a plurality of branch pipes derived from the gas cylinder are supplied to a plurality of processing facilities. A gas supply pipe to be supplied, a flow rate regulator provided between the gas cylinder and the gas supply pipe, and the flow rate so that the flow rate of the vaporized gas supplied from both ends of the gas supply pipe becomes the same. And a flow control unit for controlling the regulator. Further, it is desirable to provide a spare gas cylinder in parallel with the gas cylinder.

[0009]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a piping system diagram for explaining a gas supply system according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the gas supply system includes a gas cylinder 4, 4a for storing liquefied gas and two gas cylinders 4, 4a.
And gas supply pipes 7, 7a for supplying vaporized gas to a plurality of processing equipments 9, 9a via a plurality of branch pipes 8 derived therefrom and connected to both ends via a connecting pipe 3, and a gas cylinder 4,
The flow controllers 1 and 1a provided between the gas supply pipes 4a and the gas supply pipes 7 and 7a, respectively, and the flow regulators 1 and 1a so that the flow rates of the vaporized gas supplied from both ends of the gas supply pipe become the same. And a flow control unit 2 for controlling.

In this gas supply system, the conventional unreliable electromagnetic on-off valve is eliminated, and the gas supply is cut off by a mechanical manual on-off valve in the gas cylinders 4, 4a. Further, a flow regulator 1 for setting a gas flow rate is provided in addition to the pressure regulators 5 and 5a for setting gas pressures in the gas supply pipes 7 and 7a for the two gases A and B. The flow controllers 1, 1a are, for example, 1
It is desirable to use a mass flow controller that can precisely set the flow rate to about 200 slm. further,
It is desirable to connect the gas cylinders 4b and 4c via piping in front of the pressure regulator 5 in parallel with the gas cylinders 4 and 4a.

Next, the operation of the gas supply system will be described. First, it is confirmed that all of the processing equipments 9 and 9a are not operating, and the manual valves of the gas cylinders 4 and 4a are opened to adjust the gas pressure by the pressure regulators 5 and 5a. Next, the flow rate controller 2 and the flow rate controller 1a control the flow rate controller 2 so that the flow rate of the gas becomes the same while the gas is being flown.
Then, the air flow (not shown) is closed to complete the preparation.

When the preparation is completed as described above, the processing equipment 9, 9a is always supplied with a constant flow rate of gas even when it is operated for a long time, and the other gas cylinder 4, even if the supply amount of one of the gas cylinders 4, 4a is reduced. , 4a complement each other, and the operation of the processing equipment 9, 9a can be stably performed.

Further, when the flow rate of the gas by the flow regulators 1 and 1a falls below an allowable value as the integrated operation time of the processing equipments 9 and 9a advances, an alarm is issued from the flow control unit 2. At this time, one of the manual valves of the spare gas cylinders 4b and 4c is opened, and the gas cylinders 4 and 4a used so far are opened.
Close the manual valve and replace with a new gas cylinder.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, the conventional low reliability electromagnetic on-off valve is eliminated, and two gas supply pipes are connected by a connecting pipe to form one gas supply pipe. By providing gas cylinders at both ends of the gas supply pipe of the system, and supplying the gas at the same gas flow rate from the two gas cylinders by the flow regulator provided at both ends of the gas supply pipe, the malfunction of the electromagnetic on-off valve Even if there is no gas supply stoppage and the gas supply from one gas cylinder is insufficient, the other gas cylinder will supplement and supply a constant flow of gas at all times.
This has the effect of eliminating defects in work-in-progress due to insufficient gas supply or stoppage.

Further, by providing a backup gas cylinder, the processing equipment can be operated for a long period of time without stopping the processing equipment, and there is an effect that the operation rate of the processing equipment is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a piping system diagram for explaining a gas supply system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a piping diagram for explaining a gas supply system according to a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1a Flow regulator 2 Flow controller 3 Connecting pipe 4, 4a, 4b, 4c Gas cylinder 5, 5a Pressure regulator 6, 6a Cabinet 7, 7a Gas supply pipe 8, 8a Branch pipe 9, 9a Processing equipment 10, 10a Solenoid on-off valve

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A gas cylinder for storing liquefied gas, a gas supply pipe for connecting two gas cylinders to both ends and supplying a vaporized gas to a plurality of processing facilities via a plurality of branch pipes derived therefrom, and the gas cylinder. A flow controller provided between each of the gas supply pipes, and a flow control unit that controls the flow controller so that the flow rate of the vaporized gas supplied from both ends of the gas supply pipes is the same. A gas supply system comprising: 2. The gas supply system according to claim 1, wherein a spare gas cylinder is provided in parallel with said gas cylinder.