KR20000060414A - Apparatus for handling exhausted gas - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus for treating gas is provided to prevent clogging of exhaust lines, thereby the life span of an apparatus for treating gas is not shortened. CONSTITUTION: An apparatus for treating gas has a system for selecting and exhausting gas containing water vapor wherein the apparatus is characterized by comprising: a) a chamber(200); b) a first exhaust line; c) a second exhaust line connecting the chamber to the first exhaust line; and d) a device for passing a gas from the chamber to the first exhaust line through a different path according to the kind of the gas which is positioned at the second exhaust line in which the device comprises a first subline for passing a gas containing water vapor to the first exhaust line and a second subline for passing a dry gas to the first exhaust line.

Description

Gas treatment device {APPARATUS FOR HANDLING EXHAUSTED GAS}

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a gas treating apparatus, and more particularly, to a gas treating apparatus having a system for sorting and exhausting a gas containing water vapor.

Many gases are used in the semiconductor manufacturing process, and toxic and flammable gases are emitted in a large amount. The gases used in the semiconductor manufacturing process for the prevention of environmental pollution or for the safety of the human body are removed by harmful devices by various devices.

One example is a dry gas scrubber system and a wet scrubber system. Among these, the dry gas scrubber is used to change harmful gases chemically stably and harmlessly by simply using chemical reactions according to the fluid flow of gases without using water or fire. It is used for pollution prevention or human safety.

1 is a diagram for showing a conventional gas treatment apparatus.

Referring to FIG. 1, gases used in the semiconductor process chamber 100 are exhausted to the exhaust line 108 by a pump 102. The gases transported through the exhaust line 108 pass through a scrubber 104 containing resin and are exhausted to a common exhaust 106 after harmful components are filtered out.

However, when the resin (RESIN) is used to filter harmful components of the exhaust gas (filter) by the moisture (moisture) on the surface of the resin (powder) by the adsorption of the pipe often occurs. In particular, a large amount of water vapor is generated after the wet cleaning of the process chamber in which the semiconductor process is performed with water. When a gas containing a large amount of water vapor passes through the resin, Adsorption on the surface of the resin is more likely to cause clogging of the pipe. In this case, the life of the resin is shortened and ultimately, a problem arises in that the scrubber, which is a gas filtration device, needs to be replaced, and facility maintenance becomes difficult.

The present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem, and an object thereof is to provide a new type of gas treatment apparatus capable of preventing clogging of an exhaust line.

1 is a diagram for illustrating a conventional gas treatment apparatus;

2 is a diagram for showing a gas treating apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a diagram for showing a gas treatment apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

200: process chamber 202: pump

204: scrubber 206: common exhaust

208: exhaust line 210: first valve

212: second valve 214: control unit

216 resin 218: second bypass valve

220: first bypass valve

According to a feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, a gas processing apparatus having a system for sorting and exhausting a gas containing water vapor includes a chamber, a first exhaust line, a second exhaust line, and a member. The second exhaust line connects the chamber and the first exhaust line. In addition, the member is installed on the second exhaust line, the first exhaust line to the gas containing water vapor to flow to the first exhaust line through a different path depending on the type of gas exhausted from the chamber And a second subline for flowing dry gas into the first exhaust line. The second subline also has a scrubber containing resin.

In particular, the invention is characterized in that the second exhaust line has two sublines. When the gas contains a lot of water vapor, the gas is filtered to flow to the first subline, and when general dry gas is transferred, to the second subline provided with a filtration device.

According to the gas treatment device having such a structure, since gas containing water vapor can be prevented from adsorbing to the resin and blocking the second subline connected to the scrubber, maintenance of the equipment is easy and the life of the gas treatment device is shortened. Can be prevented.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 3. In addition, the same reference numerals are denoted for the components that perform the same function in the drawings.

2 is a diagram for showing a gas treatment apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram for showing a gas treatment apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, many kinds of gases are used in a process chamber 200 in which a process for manufacturing a semiconductor device is performed. In particular, if the gas containing harmful components of the generated gas is exhausted as it may affect the environmental pollution and the human body, be sure to pass through the gas treatment device through the exhaust line. Gases exhausted by the pump 202 in the process chamber 200 are transferred through the exhaust line 208. The exhaust line 208 branches into a line with a first valve 210 and a line with a second valve 212. The first valve 210 and the second valve 212 are opened or closed by the controller 214. In a general case, gas flowing from the process chamber 200 flows into the line with the first valve 210 opened through the exhaust line 208 and in this case the second valve 212 is closed. It is. Gases passing through the first valve 210 pass through a scrubber 204 and harmful components are filtered out. The scrubber 204 contains resin (refer to 216 of FIG. 3) therein to filter the gas in such a manner that the gas introduced therein chemically adsorbs harmful components of the gases while passing through the resin. The filtered gases are exhausted to the common exhaust 206. However, a large amount of water vapor is contained in the exhaust gas after the wet cleaning of the process chamber 200. When such gas passes through the resin in the scrubber 204, a powder due to a large amount of water vapor is adsorbed on the surface of the resin so that the gas is no longer exhausted in the scrubber, that is, the pipe is blocked. This happens. Thus, to avoid this, the gas containing a large amount of water vapor has a different way of exhausting the line. A pressure gauge (not shown) installed in the process chamber 200 is connected to the controller 214. When the wet cleaning is performed in the process chamber 200, the pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure. In this case, the pressure gauge detects the pressure and if the pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure, the controller 214 closes the first valve 210. By opening the second valve 212 the gases exhausted after the wet cleaning are exhausted towards the line with the second valve 212 so as not to damage the resin in the scrubber 204.

Referring to FIG. 3, the embodiment of the present invention of FIG. 2 takes a way to divert the exhaust line and divert the exhaust gas to another exhaust line, but the embodiment of FIG. Use a by-pass valve. In a general case, the first bypass valve 220 in the scrubber 204 is opened and the second bypass valve 218 is closed to allow gas flowing into the scrubber 204 to pass through the resin 216. Take the way. However, as described above, after the wet cleaning is performed in the process chamber 200, the gases exhausted by closing the first bypass valve 220 and opening the second bypass valve 218 are discharged to the resin 216. Use a method to allow exhaust without passing through.

By applying the present invention as described above, it is possible to prevent the gas containing water vapor from clogging the exhaust line, so it is easy to maintain and repair the equipment and prevent the life of the gas treatment apparatus from being shortened.

Claims (3)

A gas treating apparatus having a system for sorting and exhausting a gas containing water vapor, A chamber; A first exhaust line; A second exhaust line connecting the chamber and the first exhaust line; Means for installing on said second exhaust line, said means for flowing to said first exhaust line through a different path depending on the type of gas exhausted from said chamber; The means includes a first subline for flowing a gas containing water vapor into the first exhaust line; And a second subline for flowing dry gas to the first exhaust line. The method of claim 1, And said means comprises a scrubber in which resin is installed in said second subline. The method of claim 1, And said means is a scrubber provided with a bypass valve in said second subline.