JPH11230592A - Fan filter unit monitor and control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To secure flexibility to addition and change of quantity, arrangement, and function of an FFU and realize energy saving by installing a case of a control node on a main body of a fan filter unit, and connecting the control node and a unit control box by means of a connector. SOLUTION: On a main body of each fan filter unit(FFU) installed on a ceiling part of a clean room is mounted a control node for monitoring control, conditions, and failure of start/stop of a fan. Each control node is connected to a host computer by a network wiring by means of a decentralized PC interface. On a substrate stowed into a case of each control node is mounted a circuit. The circuit is provided with an FFU input connector and an FFU output connector. To a state monitoring circuit section of a control box provided on an FFU main body is connected a cable. The circuit is provided with a power connector for connecting a source DC power common to a DC power section.

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 through a network, and in particular, requires an individual control wiring for each FFU from the center. FFs that can individually control the FFU without being affected by the power supply line length and the distribution of the power supply load, and can supply stable DC power to the control notebook corresponding to each FFU.
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 in which a high-performance filter and a fan are integrated are installed in a distributed manner at a ceiling portion. The effective operation of this FFU group controls the airflow in the clean room, and a predetermined cleanness is maintained. In order to optimize the environment and services in the clean room according to the goals while at the same time achieving flexible response and energy saving,
Each FFU requires fine-grained control. A typical example of the conventional FFU control will be described with reference to FIG. This method is called a client-server method via a remote station.
The FFU is managed by one remote station for each group, and each remote station and the host computer are connected by a network wiring. Each remote station is installed in the air-conditioning machine room, and is connected to each FFU in each group, which is installed on the ceiling of the clean room, by six FFU input / output wirings. The host computer instructs each remote station to perform FFU control on a group basis 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, remote individual control of hundreds of FFUs from the center from the center is difficult to realize in terms of control wiring work and the number of processing points on the center side. . In particular, the number of FFUs installed to achieve and maintain cleanliness is large, and naturally the power consumption is also large.
In addition, the number of FFUs increases and decreases and the layout changes frequently due to the layout of equipment suitable for semiconductor manufacturing.
There is a request for a function change. At present, the cost increases due to the remarkable increase in the number of input / output control points and the amount of control wiring of the control system.
Control is performed on a group basis. When the FFU control is grouped, it becomes difficult to control each FFU unit. In other words, there is a problem that it is difficult to achieve energy saving while optimizing because individual flexible and fine control becomes impossible. Also, processing based on commands from the central monitoring and control unit and processing for sending the operating state and failure state of the FFU to the central monitoring and control unit in the control box of the FFU main unit are performed by a microcomputer (MPU). In the DC power supply, a DC voltage was generated from 100 V AC by a DC power supply circuit mounted on each FFU main body. Such a DC power supply method has a problem that each control node is increased in size and cost. It is an object of the present invention to provide an FFU monitoring and control device which ensures flexibility for addition / change of the number, arrangement, and functions of FFUs and realizes energy saving.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is an apparatus for monitoring and controlling the operation of a large number of FFUs provided to maintain a clean room at a predetermined cleanliness, via a network. Monitoring and control means for monitoring the operating state and failure state of the FFU and controlling the start / stop of the fan, a network interface for connecting the monitoring and control means with a network, and processing for performing communication processing and program processing , Amplifying unit, DC power supply unit, control node containing a board on which input / output terminals are mounted in a case, and a common source D for supplying a DC voltage to each control node
A C power supply, and a unit control box provided in the FFU and having a main power supply circuit for performing start / stop operation from the control node and a state control circuit having a state monitoring circuit for the control node to extract operation and failure state signals as network signals. The control node case is attached to each FFU body, and the control node and the unit control box are connected by a connector. A second aspect of the present invention is the configuration according to the first aspect, 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 converted DC voltage. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a monitor which constitutes means for monitoring the operating state and the failure state of the FFU and instructing the monitoring control means at least for each FFU to start / stop operation. ,
The monitor is configured to display the arrangement of FFUs installed on the ceiling of the clean room on a screen, and to instruct start / stop of operation by selecting a specific FFU on the screen. Further, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the invention, the monitor is configured to display the operation state and the failure state of the FFU in different colors.

[0005]

With the above configuration, an inexpensive field LAN (twisted pair transmission) is constructed for each FFU, and the target FFU is LA.
Let it be a node on N. Each node is configured by an autonomous distributed control terminal using an inexpensive commercially available autonomous distributed neuron chip. Each node communicates with each other by using an object-oriented communication method to realize mutual interoperability (interoperability). That is, the object-oriented description, network variables as communication data based on this, and the FFU connected to each node
Is controlled in a distributed manner by interoperability of nodes without depending on 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 is greatly reduced. (2) The number of direct process input / output points to the control system system via the remote station is converted into a serial signal in network variable units.
The number of direct input / output points for DO, AI, AO, etc. is eliminated. This also eliminates the need for a remote station. (3) Since control is performed on a node-by-node basis, individual control and group control of a single FFU are facilitated, and detailed air conditioning control can be performed, thereby conserving energy. In addition, the control wiring can be greatly reduced, and the control wiring construction cost of the FFU can be significantly reduced compared to the conventional method, and maintenance becomes easier. (4) Autonomous decentralization of nodes realizes high system reliability and downsizing of hosts. Furthermore, it is possible to flexibly cope with increase / decrease of nodes, addition / change of functions and change of points. (5) It is possible to realize an open network and establish a multi-vendor environment by establishing object-oriented network variables, standardizing them, and establishing interoperability policies. (6) Field devices such as FFU can easily enter and leave the network.

By combining a source DC power supply and a power supply circuit of a predetermined DC regulator type at each node, a stable D is obtained without being affected by the length of the power supply line and the distribution of the power supply load.
C power can be supplied compactly and inexpensively.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an FFU control system according to the present invention using a local distributed control method. Each FFU has a control node that controls the start / stop of the fan and monitors the status and failure. Each control node is connected to a host computer (hereinafter referred to as a host PC) via a distributed PC interface via network wiring. Described).

The distributed control environment will be described. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of an object-oriented distributed control environment. FIG. 3 shows a data flow between the host PC system, the control node, and the FFU. The network variable object treats a network variable, which is an object type of intercommunication data between devices on a network, as communication data, and has a data type declared by an application program. There are standard network variables that are defined as standard, and those that are individually defined by the user.
SNVT (IN, OUT) is an abbreviation for Standard Predefined 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. Sources and destinations of network variables for communicating between the devices are determined in advance by software for each variable, and a connection is stored for each device. The connection between the source and destination of this network variable is called soft connection or network binding.

A communication network (twisted pair line, power line carrier) is a communication medium for transmitting and receiving network variables as communication data, and includes a 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. The objected control node means a device on the network,
Various types of information possessed by the device are abstracted by making them objects so that communication can be performed without being aware of the physical specifications of each control node. DDE (Direct Date Exchange) is a server for directly exchanging data between a network variable data file and a PC application data file.

The network DB is a database of network variables communicated on the network, and is created at the time of soft connection and installed on a PC. The network communication data in the PC exchanges data with the PC application via the DDE with reference 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 an input SNVT and an output SNVT used in the corresponding node in advance. Thereby, the node and the network are logically connected. The I / O declaration is also part of the neuron C language software article Yuzu in the control node, the input contents to the process used in the corresponding node,
Declare the output contents and specification pin NO in advance. As a result, the node and the target process are logically connected. The contents of this input / output are standardized as objects, and the function works only by declaring the I / O pin No. for each process with the process side on the software.

The neuron C task description uses a C language called NeuronC for the application program of the control node. In order to realize a distributed network based on ANSI C, functions such as objectization of I / O function, network communication, and scheduler for event occurrence are extended. Network variables and I / O objects are declared and defined in the program. The start / stop object declares use as an I / O object for realizing individual start and stop of each FFU from the control node.
When receiving the start / stop SNVT declared by the network for each FFU controller, the node outputs pulse contact signals for starting and stopping. The control node receives the contact signal of the operation state (run, stop) and the failure signal from each FFU, and declares the state change object and the failure object as an I / O object of the state change object and the failure object. It is output on the network as the declared output SNVT.

The PCLTA module functions as a host node, receives a signal on the network side, and outputs a signal on the host PC side to the network side. The contents of this input / output are obtained by receiving status signals and failure signals from each node (node module) of the FFU and transferring them to the host PC, and receiving start / stop control signals for each FFU from the host PC, Send to the side. Each node receives / 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, only the relevant FFU control signal, and
ON / OFF pulse contact for FU to I
Output from the O terminal, input ON / OFF state binary contact of FFU from IO terminal and output ON / OFF state signal to the network side, and input FFU failure binary contact from IO terminal to network Outputs a fault signal to the side.

FIG. 4 shows the appearance and circuit arrangement 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
A circuit is mounted on a board housed in a case to be attached 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 mounted on the motherboard in a plug-in structure , An FFU input / output conversion unit (I / O) that processes a relay operation signal for turning on / off a fan control relay and an ON or OFF state of a relay for monitoring a fan as a fan state signal.
Processing), power supply to each circuit and turning on the fan of FFU
A DC power supply unit for supplying power to the / OFF control relay;
FFU for connecting a cable to the status monitoring circuit of the FFU
An input connector (input TB), an FFU output connector (output TB), a network connection connector for connecting a control node to a network, and a power supply connector for connecting a common source DC power supply to a DC power supply unit. Here, the control board includes 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 a network.
The Neuron chip has a communication protocol (LonTalk protocol) made into firmware, and is composed of three CPUs that process media access, network, and I / O application processing with high efficiency. LonTal
In the k protocol, OSI is a seven-layer protocol model, has good interoperability, can support various media, and has good communication efficiency by packet communication.

In FIG. 5, the communication processing of the neuron chip receives and decodes the SNVT as a packet signal from the network via the transceiver, and executes the application program processing and the I / O processing. An output (individual start / stop signal) is output to a process device such as an FFU as an FFU ON / OFF command via a signal amplifier circuit (contact output). The I / O processing receives the ON state and the failure state of the FFU as a contact signal, and the state is detected by the program, the change event of the failure is detected, the SNVT output processing is executed to the network, the coding processing is performed by the communication processing, and the communication processing is performed 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 control apparatus according to the present invention. The source DC power supply is D required by each control node.
Supply DC higher than C. Source DC power is DC5V
The voltage is set to a voltage at which DC 5 V or more is secured at each node from the length of the power supply line when supplying power to each node and the voltage drop state of the load current.
Each node power supply is of a regulator type with a DC 5 V output, and outputs a stable DC 5 V with no voltage fluctuation by a DC voltage input of DC 5 V or more. According to the DC power supply of the regulator system, the voltage is reduced from 100 V AC by a transformer, and the DC voltage is reduced by a rectifier circuit, a smoothing circuit, and a stabilizing circuit.
The size and cost can be reduced as compared with the method of obtaining 5V. Here, the communication unit includes a network connection transceiver and a communication processing unit (Neuron chip). PI / O part
This is an FFU input / output conversion unit. The process section is the control box of the FFU main unit.

As shown in FIG. 7, the control node module and the state monitoring circuit of the FFU main unit are connected by a cable for controlling the start / stop of the fan and a cable for receiving a fan state signal of each FFU main unit. The control node module is provided with a start contact (200Va contact) and a stop contact (200Vb contact) of the FFU generating / stopping electromagnetic contactor 88A operating at single-phase 200V. Start contact is activated
It is a normally open contact that is turned ON by the BO signal (FFU ON command), and the stop contact is turned ON by the stop BO signal (FFU OFF command).
It is a normally closed contact that performs FF operation. FFU via stop contact
Wiring for self-holding the start / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A is provided. As shown in FIG. 8, the starting BO signal / stopping BO signal is an ON signal at the time of rising which changes from 0 to 1 and an OFF signal at the time of falling which changes from 1 to 0, and a starting contact (200Va contact) and a stopping contact ( (200 Vb contact).

The control box of the FFU main unit is a main contact (88A) inserted in the main power circuit (three-phase 200V) of the FFU fan.
It consists of a single-phase 200V electromagnetic contactor circuit of the FFU starting / stopping electromagnetic contactor 88A having the above and a state monitoring circuit for monitoring the state of the FFU fan. The FFU emission / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A is energized when the start contact of the control node module is turned ON, starts the FFU fan when the main contact is turned ON, and starts / stops the FFU through the stop contact and the self-holding contact. Energization of the stop electromagnetic contactor 88A is maintained. When the stop BO signal is input, the stop contact turns off and the FFU emission / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A
Is cut off and the FFU fan stops when the main contact is turned off.

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

The module sequence will be described.
Directly excites the electromagnetic contactor 88A for starting and stopping the FFU by the contact output of the module's 200V resistant OB pulse a contact, applies self-hold, turns on the contactor and supplies three-phase 200V to the fan motor. , And the operation state is started. At the same time, the auxiliary contact 88A is closed and the state BI signal of the operating state is input to the module as a state change signal. Similarly, withstand 200V stop 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, the supply of three-phase 200V is stopped, and the motor is stopped. At the same time, the state BI contact 88A opens to input a state change signal due to the motor stop. If a failure occurs during operation, thermal relay 49
A operates to release the excitation of the FFU start / stop electromagnetic contactor 88A to stop the motor, and at the same time, the faulty contact of the thermal relay 49A is input as a fault BI to the module as a state change signal.
This series of operations is performed directly 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 connection methods, facilitating construction and expansion. This makes it possible to mount the module on the machine side from the point of wiring, and the workability and maintainability are further improved.

The monitoring control application of the FFU will be described. In FIG. 2, the monitoring control application has a function of monitoring the facilities of the entire clean room.
It provides a user environment for performing settings related to the control of individual start / stop of U and grouping, and monitoring the status / 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) constituting a user interface (UI), and shows an operation state of the FFU. This system is configured so that monitoring and control of two clean rooms are performed by one monitor, and the operation state shown in the figure uses a super clean room (SCR) that performs ultra-high cleaning using all FFUs and uses some FFUs. 1 shows a clean room (CR) that is highly purified. The monitor presses a control function button, for example, an individual FFU operation button, an individual FFU stop button, on the screen, and designates the position of the displayed FFU, so that the host PC transmits an operation command relating to the FFU corresponding to the control function button to the network. To the control node corresponding to the FFU to control the FFU. The FFU selected on the monitor screen can be individually operated or stopped. The operation control can also be performed by selecting a group of FFUs that are grouped in advance.

In the illustrated example, the super clean room (S
In (CR), the operation of the "3-7" FFU and the "6-5" FFU are suspended, and the other FFUs are in operation. On the other hand, in the clean room (CR), FFU (numbered FFU) is partially operated. In this example, the FFUs selected in a staggered manner are grouped into four groups (11-1 ■ 11-10) (12-1 ■ 12-6) (13-1 to 13-4) (1
4-1 ■ 14-6). The grouping and individual use of FFUs can be arbitrarily designed according to the environment required by the clean room, and can be changed individually and / or for each group while monitoring the state of the FFUs. Further, it is possible to easily create an operation pattern in which the FFU to be operated is set at regular intervals, the whole specific area is combined, or the whole FFU is combined with the specific area at regular intervals. An operation pattern may be prepared in advance and an optimum operation pattern may be selected according to the required environment of the clean room. In addition, the operation pattern of the FFU can be changed in the clean room during the working hours, and the most efficient operation saves energy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a FF using a local distributed control method 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 arrangement 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 the conventional FFU control.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for monitoring and controlling the operation of a number of fan filter units provided for maintaining a clean room at a predetermined cleanliness level by a network, wherein an operation state and a failure state of the fan filter unit are monitored. Monitoring control means for controlling the start / stop of the fan; a network interface for connecting the monitoring control means with a network; a processing unit for performing communication processing and program processing; an amplification unit; a DC power supply unit; A control node in which a substrate on which a substrate is mounted is accommodated, 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 and performing start / stop operation from the control node The state in which the circuit and control nodes retrieve the operating and fault status 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. Monitoring and control equipment. 3. A monitor comprising means for monitoring an operation state and a failure state of the fan filter unit, and instructing the monitoring and control means at least for each fan filter unit to start / stop operation, the monitor comprising: The layout of the fan filter units installed on the ceiling of the clean room is displayed on a screen, and the selection of a specific fan filter unit on the screen enables the start / stop of the operation.
2. The fan filter unit monitoring and control device according to claim 1, wherein a stop is instructed. 4. The fan filter unit monitoring and controlling device according to claim 3, wherein the monitor displays the operating state and the failure state of the fan filter unit in different colors.