JPH11153526A - Suction-type gas detecting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a suction-type gas detecting apparatus by which gas detection information is controlled in a concentrated manner. SOLUTION: A gas suction means 3 is installed. A gas detecting element 1 is installed in a gas circulation passage F in which a gas is sucked and guided to the gas suction means 3 from a gas sampling part 11. Then, a sensor unit A which is provided with the gas detecting element 1 and a body unit B which is provided with the gas suction means 3 are internally mounted respectively in different casings.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a suction type gas detection device provided with a gas suction means and a gas detection element in a gas flow passage for guiding a gas from a gas sampling section to the gas suction means. Such a suction type gas detecting element is used for arsenic fluoride in semiconductor manufacturing equipment,
Used for early detection of leakage of halide gases such as phosphorus fluoride, phosphorus chloride, boron chloride, nitrogen trifluoride, chlorine and hydrogen chloride, and gases such as ammonia that should not be released to the surrounding environment. It is something that can be done.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as this type of suction type gas detection device, a device provided with a gas detection element and gas suction means in the same casing has been used.

[0003]

According to the above-mentioned conventional suction-type gas detector, when it is installed and used at a position close to the gas sampling unit, the gas flow path can be relatively short, and the gas sampling It does not take a long time for the gas to be detected to reach the gas detection element from the unit to the gas detection element.For example, there is no space to install a suction-type gas detection device near the gas sampling unit, so it must be installed in a remote location. When it is unavoidable, or when you want to centrally manage the output information from multiple gas sampling units at once, consider the convenience of maintenance, etc., and combine multiple suction-type gas detection devices in a predetermined location. In such a case, the gas flow passage is relatively long, and it takes a long time for the gas to be detected to reach from the gas sampling unit to the gas detection element. There Una it is. The reason why it is difficult to secure the space for installing the suction type gas detection element is as follows.
The case where the gas suction means occupies a particularly large volume and it is difficult to reduce the size, and the case where centralized management is necessary is the case where various gases are used simultaneously at multiple locations, such as semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In some cases, gas leakage must be monitored for the entire facility. In such a case, it takes a long time until the gas to be detected is detected, which leads to a delay in the detection of the gas, making it impossible to perform a quick gas detection.
By the way, in order to eliminate such a gas detection delay, it is only necessary to increase the gas suction speed from the gas sampling unit, but in this case, air is discharged from a portion other than the leaked portion of the detected gas. A large amount of gas is likely to be sucked, and in such a case, the concentration of the gas to be detected is detected to be too low, and a gas that can detect such a low concentration of the gas to be detected with good responsiveness. Since there is no sensing element, in reality, the gas suction speed cannot be improved to a certain degree or more, and in practice, the detection delay due to the long piping is unavoidable. Further, the gas to be detected that reaches the gas detection element through the long pipe may be adsorbed on the inner wall of the pipe. If the inner wall of the pipe is dirty, the gas is adsorbed by the stain, and the situation is even more so. In view of such a situation, when trying to centrally manage the gas leak information at a plurality of locations, the distance from the gas sampling unit to the gas detection element may reach 20 m, and the gas detection delay is generally preferably within one minute. Despite the fact that the situation is likely to occur for more than one minute, the centralized management method that should aim for quick response to gas leakage etc. may be an obstacle to quick response,
The problem of centralized information management has been left unsolved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a suction-type gas detector capable of easily centralizing management of gas detection information in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks.

[0005]

In order to achieve this object, a characteristic feature of a suction type gas detector according to the present invention is to provide a gas suction means and to guide a gas from a gas sampling unit to the gas suction means. A gas detecting element is provided in a gas flow passage, and a sensor unit including the gas detecting element and a main unit including a gas suction unit are provided in different casings. Further, it is preferable that a sensor control unit is provided in the sensor unit, and a power supply control unit and an output unit are provided in the main body unit, and the display unit includes a display unit that displays output information from the output unit. Preferably, it is provided separately from the main unit.

[Effects] In other words, if the sensor unit having the gas detecting element and the main unit having the gas suction means are respectively housed in different casings, the sensor unit and the main unit are located at different positions. It can be installed. Further, since the sensor unit only needs to accommodate only the gas detection element or the minimum necessary number of the gas detection element and its control unit, the size can be easily reduced, and the installation place that is hardly obstructed. Can be set easily. Therefore, by disposing the sensor unit close to the gas sampling unit and disposing the main unit in a position where maintenance is easy, it is possible to easily perform centralized management of a plurality of main units while eliminating gas detection delay. become able to do. In addition, if the distance between the sensor unit and the gas sampling unit is shortened, it is possible to avoid the adverse effect of adsorbing the gas to be detected in the pipeline connecting the two, and to reduce the distance from the sensor unit. The downstream pipe does not need to consider the adverse effect, and the expensive pipeline considering the adverse effect can be shortened, which is useful for reducing equipment costs. Further, when the sensor unit is provided with the sensor control unit, if the wiring for incorporating the gas detection element becomes long, the gas detection element has a high resistance, so that noise is easily picked up from the surrounding environment. On the other hand, the wiring between the control unit and the gas detection element can be shortened, so that noise can be hardly picked up, which can be used for highly reliable gas detection. Furthermore, when a power supply control unit and an output unit are provided in the main unit, and a display unit having a display unit for displaying output information from the output unit is provided separately from the main unit, a plurality of main units are used in combination. In such a case, maintenance and the like of the main unit are facilitated to facilitate centralized management, and information from each main unit can be centrally grasped by the display unit, thereby facilitating the situation of the entire equipment. And quickly respond to situations such as gas leaks.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the suction type gas detection device of the present invention includes a sensor unit A attached to an exhaust duct D of a semiconductor manufacturing facility or the like, a main unit B provided with gas suction means 3 and the like, and management of the manufacturing facility. A display unit C is provided in the room E, and is operable as a gas leak alarm system as a whole.

The sensor unit A incorporates a constant-potential electrolytic gas detection element (hereinafter simply referred to as a gas detection element) 1 and, as a sensor control section 2, converts an electric signal obtained from the gas detection element into a gas to be detected. A substrate 21 for converting into a signal as detection information is provided, and a gas sampling unit 11 opening to the exhaust duct D is provided so that a gas to be detected containing semiconductor manufacturing exhaust gas can be introduced into the gas detection element 1. , A gas deriving section 12 is provided so that the gas can be led out of the sensor unit A.

The main unit B incorporates a suction pump 33 having a gas inlet 31 and a gas outlet 32, and a gas flow controller 34 is provided in the gas outlet 32 so that gas can be sucked at a constant flow rate. The gas suction means 3 is constituted. Further, an output unit 4 for amplifying and outputting a signal from the sensor control unit 2 is provided so that detection information of a gas to be detected can be output to the display unit C. These suction pumps 33,
The power supply to the flow control unit 34 and the output unit 4 is performed via the power supply control unit 5.

The gas outlet 12 of the sensor unit A and the gas inlet 31 of the main unit B are connected by using a vinyl tube or the like to form a gas flow passage F. The gas to be detected is supplied to the gas detection element 1 at a constant flow rate.
The gas exhaust portion 32 of the main unit B is further connected to an exhaust duct D, and the gas to be detected is supplied to the exhaust duct D.
It is configured so that it can be returned and subjected to a purification treatment or the like. In addition, since the gas flow path F is for passing the gas which has been detected by the gas detecting element 1, conventionally, the gas flow path F has high durability in consideration of gas adsorption and corrosion of the pipeline.
While we had to use relatively expensive ones,
It can be made of relatively inexpensive materials, and the cost of the entire equipment can be suppressed.

The display unit C is installed in the management room E, and is configured to display gas detection information on a display unit 6 for integrally monitoring information from a plurality of main units B.

[Alternative Embodiment] In the above embodiment, a constant-potential electrolysis type gas detecting element was used as a gas detecting element.
The present invention is not limited to this, and may be a semiconductor gas detection element.
In short, any device that can generate an output with respect to the introduced gas may be used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a gas leak alarm system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Gas detection element 3 Gas suction means 11 Gas sampling part A Sensor unit B Main unit F Gas flow passage

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A suction type gas detection device comprising: a gas suction unit; and a gas detection element provided in a gas flow passage for guiding a gas from a gas sampling unit to the gas suction unit. And a main unit provided with the gas suction means are housed in different casings, respectively. 2. The suction type gas detection device according to claim 1, wherein a sensor control unit is provided in the sensor unit. 3. A power supply control unit and an output unit are provided in the main unit, and a display unit having a display unit for displaying output information from the output unit is provided separately from the main unit. The suction-type gas detection device according to any one of the above items.