KR100808088B1 - Apparatus for transferring n2 gas used in elimination of chamber gas - Google Patents

Abstract

A nitrogen transfer apparatus for exhausting process gas is provided to increase heat efficiency of a nitrogen transfer apparatus by minimizing a heat leakage by a heat conductive pipe formed between a heater and a housing. Process gas flows in a transfer pipe connecting part(10) wherein a nitrogen absorption hole(12) is formed on the outer surface of the transfer pipe connecting part. A heater(20) is positioned along the outer circumferential surface of the transfer pipe connecting part. A nitrogen introduction hole(32) is formed on the outer surface of a housing(30) made of a cylindrical member supporting the transfer pipe connecting part and the heater. A heat conductive pipe(40) is made of a cylindrical heat conduction member positioned between the heater and the housing wherein a nitrogen penetration hole(42) is formed in the outer circumferential hole of the heat conduction pipe to make the nitrogen introduced from the nitrogen introduction hole arrive at the heater. The heater includes at least two bar-type heaters, and the bar-type heater is extended in parallel with the transfer pipe. The bar-type heaters are arranged to surround the periphery of the transfer pipe, electrically interconnected in parallel. The nitrogen absorption hole can be tilted in the flow direction of the process gas to easily absorb the process gas according to the flow of the process.

Description

Nitrogen transfer device for process gas discharge {Apparatus for transferring N2 gas used in elimination of chamber gas}

1A is a view illustrating a process of discharging a process gas during a semiconductor manufacturing process.

Figure 1b is a view showing a cross section of the feed pipe adsorbed by-products.

2 is a view showing a process gas discharge path in which a nitrogen transfer device of the present invention is installed.

3 is a cross-sectional view of the nitrogen transfer apparatus according to the present invention.

4 is an exploded view of the nitrogen transfer apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 5A is a cross-sectional view showing the wiring structure of the heater, and FIG. 5B is a diagram conceptually explaining the direction of the wiring.

6 is a view showing a cross-sectional view of the transfer pipe connection portion according to another embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a cross-sectional view of a housing portion according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a nitrogen transfer device for process gas discharge, and more particularly, to a nitrogen transfer device for process gas discharge that can suppress the formation of by-products by introducing hot nitrogen into a path for discharging process gas.

1A is a view illustrating a process of discharging a process gas during a semiconductor manufacturing process.

The chamber 1 is a space for manufacturing a semiconductor, and various process gases 5 are used to activate chemical reactivity. The process gas 5 has various components harmful to humans and the environment.

The process gas 5 flows into the purifier 4 through the pump 2 after being used in the chamber 1, and is purified by the purifier 4 to be discharged to the outside after the harmful by-products are removed.

The discharged process gas 6 passes through the transfer pipe 3, which is a path between the pump 2 and the purifier 4, and since the transfer pipe 3 is generally long, By-products contained within the process gas 6 are likely to be adsorbed on the inner wall of the transfer pipe 3 before reaching.

Figure 1b is a view showing a cross section of the feed pipe adsorbed by-products.

These by-products (powder) to reduce the internal volume of the transfer pipe to reduce the efficiency of the process gas discharge path, causing various problems, such as reducing the durability of the transfer pipe. In order to prevent this, a method of cleaning the inside of the transfer pipe is also attempted, but since such a cleaning operation is time-consuming and expensive, it is not preferable to bring about an increase in the price of semiconductor manufacturing. Therefore, there is an urgent need in the industry for a technology for preventing the generation of by-products in the transfer pipe in the process gas discharge path from the chamber to the purifier.

In order to suppress the production of such by-products, attempts have recently been made to inhale hot nitrogen gas into the inside of a transfer pipe. This method prevents the temperature inside the transfer pipe from being reduced by inhaling chemically stable high temperature nitrogen gas into the transfer pipe, thereby suppressing the generation of by-products by preventing the occurrence of by-product generation conditions.

As one of such nitrogen transfer devices, Korean Patent No. 719336 discloses an apparatus for applying a heater jacket for supplying hot nitrogen to an exhaust line and insulating the exhaust line by using a separate supply line.

However, the conventional transfer device is a method of supplying already heated nitrogen, which is heated from the outside, to the exhaust line through a supply line, and thus has a large amount of heat leakage, resulting in low thermal efficiency. Since it is recessed during manufacturing inside the heating jacket, the function of the whole thermal insulation mechanism is lost when the function malfunctions, so it is not excellent in terms of availability.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a nitrogen transfer device with further increased thermal efficiency and solubility.

In order to solve the above problems, the nitrogen gas transfer device for process gas discharge according to the present invention is a nitrogen gas transfer device for process gas discharge used in a process for discharging the process gas generated in the semiconductor manufacturing process. Transport tube connecting portion 10 formed with a nitrogen suction hole 12 on the outer surface; A heater 20 located along an outer circumferential surface of the transfer pipe connection part; And a cylindrical member supporting the transfer pipe connection part and the heater, the housing having a nitrogen inlet 32 formed on an outer surface thereof. A heat conduction tube 40 including a nitrogen through hole 42 on the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical heat conductive member positioned between the heater and the housing to allow nitrogen introduced from the nitrogen inlet 32 to reach the heater. The heater may include two or more rod heaters, and the rod heaters may extend in parallel with the transfer pipes and may be arranged to surround the transfer pipes in an electrically parallel connection state. .

In one embodiment, the rod-shaped heaters are electrically connected in parallel by wires 60 drawn from the outside of the housing, and the wires are circularly outside the outer circumferential surface of the transfer tube when viewed in the cross-sectional direction of the housing. The first wiring 62 includes an extended first wiring 62 and a second wiring 64 extending in parallel with the first wiring and running in a direction opposite to the first wiring outside the first wiring.

In one embodiment, the nitrogen suction hole 12 is characterized in that inclined in the direction in which the process gas flows to be easily sucked in accordance with the flow of the process gas.

In one embodiment, the nitrogen inlet 42 is located in the opposite direction to the nitrogen inlet so that the maximum time for the nitrogen passing through the nitrogen inlet through the nitrogen inlet is increased to the maximum. It is done.

In one embodiment, the nitrogen inlet 12 is located in the opposite direction to the nitrogen through-holes so that the maximum time until the nitrogen passing through the nitrogen through-holes through the nitrogen intake hole is increased to the maximum. It features.

In one embodiment, the rod-shaped heater is characterized in that in contact with the transfer pipe connection.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a view showing a process gas discharge path in which a nitrogen transfer device of the present invention is installed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the nitrogen transfer device 100 according to the present invention is installed between the pump 2 and the purifier 4. As described above, the nitrogen transfer device 100 of the present invention is introduced into the nitrogen transfer device 100 of the present invention, rather than the high temperature nitrogen. That is, the nitrogen transfer device 100 transfers the nitrogen at low temperature and immediately transfers it to the transfer pipe 3. The present invention also arranges two or more rod heaters electrically connected in parallel to the transfer pipe, thereby further increasing the availability of the entire apparatus in the event of a malfunction of one heater. It demonstrates in detail below.

3 and 4 are cross-sectional and exploded views of the nitrogen transfer apparatus according to the present invention.

The nitrogen transfer device 100 includes a transfer pipe connection part 10, a heater 20, a housing 30, and a heat conduction pipe 40.

The transfer pipe connection part 10 is a member in the form of a pipe which is connected to the transfer pipe 3 in the process gas discharge path and the process gas proceeds inside. On the outer circumferential surface of the transfer pipe connection part 10, a nitrogen suction hole 12 for sucking nitrogen is formed.

The heater 20 is a rod-type heater that functions to heat nitrogen and is heated by electricity supplied by the wiring 60. The heater 20 is a rod-type heater extending in the same direction as the direction in which the transfer pipe connection 20 extends, and is arranged to surround the outer circumferential surface of the transfer pipe connection in a state in which two or more rod heaters are electrically connected in parallel with each other. have.

In the present invention, since two or more rod-type heaters electrically connected in parallel are arranged to surround the transfer pipe connection part, phosphorus nitrogen is heated to the remaining heater even if one heater fails, thereby improving the ability to cope with equipment malfunction. The availability of the entire nitrogen transfer device is increased. In particular, the malfunction of the nitrogen transfer device has a devastating effect on the production of by-products in the delivery pipe, so this increase in availability can drastically reduce the maintenance costs of the delivery pipe. The wiring structure will be described with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B.

The housing 30 is a cylindrical member that supports the transfer pipe connecting portion 10 and the heater 20. On the outer surface of the housing 30, a nitrogen inlet 32 for introducing low temperature nitrogen is formed.

In one embodiment, the housing 30 is the first housing portion 34 for fixing the heater 10 and the second housing portion for fixing the wiring while drawing out the wire 60 connected from the fixed heater to the outside ( 36). This is to form a closed space for preventing the heat generated by the first heater to be discharged to the outside, and to separate the second housing into two members to facilitate maintenance, maintenance and management.

The heat conduction pipe 40 is a cylindrical heat conductive member and is located between the heater 20 and the housing 30. In order to maximize the heat conduction, the heat conduction pipe 40 is preferably a metallic member. The heat conduction pipe 40 includes a nitrogen through hole 42 for nitrogen introduced into the nitrogen inlet 32 of the housing to reach the heater 20. The heat conduction pipe 40 first prevents heat generated by the heater 20 from leaking out through the housing, and secondly, increases thermal efficiency by separating a region where low temperature nitrogen and high temperature nitrogen exist.

The second function will be described in detail. Since the heat conduction tube 40 is located between the heater 20 and the housing 30, the heating space 50 formed by the transfer pipe connecting portion 10 and the housing 30 is divided into a low temperature region 52 and a high temperature region ( 54). For this reason, the first low-temperature nitrogen introduced from the outside becomes primary nitrogen in the low temperature region 52, and is then heated in the high temperature region 54 to become high temperature nitrogen. That is, the thermal conductivity efficiency can be further maximized by performing chemical activation (heating) that is physically separated by physically separated heating spaces. In addition, since the nitrogen of the first heated lukewarm also serves to prevent the heat generated from the heater from leaking out by being filled in the low temperature region, the thermal efficiency can be further increased.

On the other hand, in one embodiment of the present invention, the nitrogen inlet 32, the nitrogen through hole 42 and the nitrogen suction hole 12 are located in opposite directions to maximize the heat transfer time of the nitrogen gas is maximized. This will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 7.

In one embodiment, the nitrogen transfer device 100 further includes an insulating member 72 and a fixing member 74. The insulating member 72 is an electric insulator in the shape of a disk. The insulating member 72 is positioned at the front end of the wiring 60 of the heater to electrically insulate the wiring from the external metals. 72) to secure the housing 34.

In one embodiment, the heater 20 is characterized in that in contact with the transfer pipe connection (10). Not only heat transfer to heater-> air-> nitrogen, but also heat transfer to heater-> transfer tube-> process gas + nitrogen can be generated to maximize heat transfer efficiency to further suppress the generation of by-products in the transfer tube.

5A is a cross-sectional view showing the wiring structure of the heater, and FIG. 5B is a view conceptually explaining the direction of the wiring.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the wiring 60 is connected to the front end of the rod-shaped heater through the housing. The wiring 60 includes a first wiring 62 and a second wiring 64. One of the first wiring and the second wiring is electrically positive and the other is negative. The first wiring 62 extends in a circle from the outside of the outer circumferential surface of the feed pipe connecting portion 10 when viewed from the cross-sectional direction of the housing, and the second wiring 64 runs in a direction opposite to the first wiring, It is arranged to extend in parallel with one wiring.

For example, the first wiring forms an external circle and is arranged to connect the + poles in the order of the first heater-> second heater-> third heater-> ....-> sixth heater, and the second wiring The inner circle is formed inside the outer circle formed by the first wiring and is arranged to connect the positive poles in the order of the sixth heater-> fiveth heater-> fourth heater-> ....-> first heater.

5B conceptually shows a traveling direction of such wiring. The first wiring 62 proceeds counterclockwise to the outside of the outer circumferential surface of the feed pipe connection part in the order of the first heater 501-> the second heater 502, ...-> the sixth heater 506. The second wiring 64 is electrically connected to the heater through the contact C1, and the sixth heater 506-> fifth heater 505, ...-proceeds clockwise outside the outer circumferential surface of the transfer pipe connecting portion. The first heater 501 is electrically connected to the heater through the contact C2.

By doing so, electrical connections can be made between two or more heaters to increase their availability (i.e., if one heater malfunctions, while the other heaters operate), while placing the heaters around the feed pipe connections so that the wiring does not overlap or twist. can do. That is, due to the arrangement and wiring structure of the heater that can increase the availability (availability) of the heater, the availability of the nitrogen transfer device is also increased, it is possible to always suppress the generation of by-products, or powder in the process gas discharge process.

6 is a view showing a cross-sectional view of the transfer pipe connection portion according to another embodiment of the present invention.

In one embodiment, as shown in Figure 6, the nitrogen suction hole 12 is formed to be inclined in the direction in which the process gas flows to be easily sucked in accordance with the flow of the process gas.

The flow of fluid 601 by the process gas exiting the chamber is greater in volume and faster than the inhaled nitrogen fluid stream 602. In addition, the nitrogen present in the relatively small nitrogen suction hole 12 is sucked into the transfer pipe 10 in accordance with the flow of the process gas. However, if the difference between the flow rate of the process gas and the flow rate of nitrogen is large, a flow resistance may be generated in the suction direction. In this embodiment, the direction of the fluid in which nitrogen is sucked is formed to be inclined to conform to the direction of the process gas rather than perpendicular to the fluid direction of the process gas, thereby reducing the occurrence of flow resistance or at least inhaling nitrogen. That is, according to the present invention, since the two fluids can be combined more harmoniously without interfering with each other in the flow of nitrogen and the process gas, the suction rate of nitrogen is increased, thereby maximizing the effect of nitrogen transfer.

7 is a cross-sectional view of a housing portion according to another embodiment of the present invention.

In one embodiment, the nitrogen through hole 42 so that the time until the nitrogen gas passing through the nitrogen inlet 32 of the housing 30 passes through the nitrogen through hole 42 of the heat conduction pipe 40 is maximized. ) Is located opposite from the position of the nitrogen inlet 32. That is, when the nitrogen inlet 32 is located at the point P1 near the front end A of the housing, the nitrogen inlet 32 is located at the point P2 near the rear end B of the housing, whereby the nitrogen inlet 32 and the nitrogen through hole are located. The distance between the 42 is maximized. In this way, the nitrogen gas is increased in contact with the heat conduction pipe 40, the heat conduction time is increased and the thermal efficiency is increased.

In addition, in one embodiment, the nitrogen suction hole 12 of the nitrogen through hole 42 so that the maximum time until the nitrogen gas passing through the nitrogen through hole 42 passes through the nitrogen suction hole 12 is increased to the maximum. Are located opposite each other from the position. That is, as in the above case, when the nitrogen through hole 42 is located at the point P2 near the rear end B of the housing, the nitrogen suction hole 12 is located at the point P3 (the same position as P1) near the front end A of the housing. By locating, the distance between the nitrogen suction hole 12 and the nitrogen through hole 42 is maximized. In this way, the nitrogen gas is increased in contact with the heat conduction pipe 40, the heat conduction time is increased and the thermal efficiency is increased.

As shown in the above two embodiments, the nitrogen inlet 32, the nitrogen through hole 42 and the nitrogen suction hole 12 are arranged in the position of P1-> P2-> P3 (P1), so that nitrogen is heated and By maximizing the distance through the heat conduction tube, the heat conduction time can be increased to increase the overall thermal efficiency.

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a nitrogen transfer apparatus in which heat leakage is prevented to the maximum by a heat conduction tube formed between a heater and a housing, thereby increasing thermal efficiency.

In addition, according to the present invention, even if one heater fails by a wiring structure of two or more rod-type heaters electrically connected in parallel, another heater is operable to provide a nitrogen transfer device with further increased availability.

In addition, according to the present invention, by the wiring structure of the heater arranged in a circular shape inside and outside, it is possible to electrically parallel connection without the occurrence of twist.

In addition, according to the present invention, by forming the nitrogen suction hole inclined in the flow direction of the process gas, the flow resistance is reduced, so that nitrogen can be sucked into the transfer pipe connection more easily.

In addition, according to the present invention, by placing the nitrogen inlet, nitrogen through hole, nitrogen suction hole in the opposite direction to each other increases the travel time and distance that the nitrogen gas is in contact with the heater to increase the thermal efficiency.

In addition, according to the present invention, the thermal efficiency is further increased by bringing the rod heater into contact with the transfer pipe.

Claims (6)

In the nitrogen transfer device for the process gas discharge used in the process of discharging the process gas generated in the semiconductor manufacturing process, Process gas proceeds to the inside, the transport pipe connection portion 10 is formed with a nitrogen suction hole 12 on the outer surface; A heater 20 located along an outer circumferential surface of the transfer pipe connection part; And A cylindrical member supporting the transfer pipe connection part and the heater, the housing 30 having a nitrogen inlet 32 formed on an outer surface thereof; A heat conduction tube 40 including a nitrogen through hole 42 on the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical heat conductive member positioned between the heater and the housing to allow nitrogen introduced from the nitrogen inlet 32 to reach the heater. and, The heater includes at least two rod-type heaters, the rod-shaped heater is a shape extending in parallel with the transfer pipe, the process gas, characterized in that arranged to surround the transfer pipe in a state electrically connected in parallel with each other Nitrogen transfer device for discharge. 2. The rod heater according to claim 1, wherein the rod heaters are electrically connected in parallel by wires 60 drawn from the outside of the housing, and the wires are circular on the outside of the outer circumferential surface of the transfer pipe when viewed in the cross-sectional direction of the housing. And a second wiring 64 extending in the opposite direction from the first wiring outside the first wiring 62 and extending in parallel with the first wiring. Nitrogen transfer device for gas discharge. The nitrogen transfer apparatus of claim 1, wherein the nitrogen suction hole (12) is inclined in a direction in which the process gas flows so as to be easily sucked in accordance with the flow of the process gas. The nitrogen inlet 42 is located in the opposite direction to the nitrogen inlet so that the maximum time for the nitrogen passing through the nitrogen inlet to pass through the nitrogen inlet is increased. Nitrogen transfer device for process gas discharge. The nitrogen intake hole (12) of claim 4, wherein the nitrogen intake hole (12) is located in a direction opposite to the nitrogen through hole so that a maximum time until the nitrogen passing through the nitrogen intake hole passes through the nitrogen intake hole is maximized. Nitrogen transfer device for process gas discharge, characterized in that. 3. The nitrogen transfer apparatus for process gas discharge according to claim 2, wherein the rod heater is in contact with the transfer pipe connection part.

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