Gas supply control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016299514-A1
Application number	US-201615080692-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 25, 2016
Priority date	Apr 8, 2015
Publication date	Oct 13, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A gas supply control method uses a pressure control flowmeter and first and second valves provided upstream and downstream, respectively, of the pressure control flowmeter in a gas supply line. The pressure control flowmeter includes a control valve and an orifice. The gas supply control method includes maintaining a pressure P 1 of a first gas supply pipe between the orifice and the control valve and a pressure P 2 of a second gas supply pipe between the orifice and the second valve so as to satisfy P 1 >2×P 2 . The supply of gas is controlled by controlling the opening and closing of the second valve with the first valve being open and the control valve being controlled. A volume V 1 of the first gas supply pipe and a volume V 2 of the second gas supply pipe have a relationship of V 1 /V 2 ≧9.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A gas supply control method using a pressure control flowmeter provided in a gas supply line, a first valve provided upstream of the pressure control flowmeter in the gas supply line, and a second valve provided downstream of the pressure control flowmeter in the gas supply line, wherein the pressure control flowmeter includes a control valve connected to the first valve and the second valve, and an orifice provided between the control valve and the second valve, the gas supply control method comprising:
maintaining a first pressure of a first gas supply pipe between the orifice and the control valve and a second pressure of a second gas supply pipe between the orifice and the second valve so as to satisfy P 1 >2×P 2 , wherein P 1 is the first pressure and P 2 is the second pressure; and controlling a supply of gas by controlling opening and closing of the second valve with the first valve being open and the control valve being controlled, wherein a first volume of the first gas supply pipe and a second volume of the second gas supply pipe have a relationship of V 1 /V 2 ≧9, where V 1 is the first volume and V 2 is the second volume.

2 . The gas supply control method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first volume and the second volume have a relationship of V 1 /V 2 ≦200.

3 . The gas supply control method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
alternately executing a first process using a first gas and a second process using a second gas by alternately supplying the first gas and the second gas by controlling the opening and closing of the second valve with the first valve being open and the control valve being controlled.

4 . The gas supply control method as claimed in claim 3 , further comprising:
evacuating the first gas supply pipe and the second gas supply pipe in a period when no gas is supplied between said supplying of the first gas and said supplying of the second gas.

5 . The gas supply control method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein said evacuating evacuates the first gas supply pipe and the second gas supply pipe in the period when no gas is supplied, when a flow rate of the first gas is higher than a flow rate of the second gas.

6 . The gas supply control method as claimed in claim 3 , further comprising:
determining whether a flow rate of the first gas is higher than a flow rate of the second gas; and after supplying the first gas, evacuating the first gas supply pipe and the second gas supply pipe in a period when no gas is supplied between said supplying the first gas and said supplying the second gas in response to determining that the flow rate of the first gas is higher than the flow rate of the second gas, and supplying the second gas without evacuating the first gas supply pipe and the second gas supply pipe in the period when no gas is supplied in response to determining that the flow rate of the first gas is lower than or equal to the flow rate of the second gas.

Assignees

• Tokyo Electron Ltd

Inventors

• Ono Kumiko
• Tsujimoto Hiroshi
• Sawachi Atsushi
• Amikura Norihiko
• Sasaki Norikazu
• Kawaguchi Yoshitaka

Classifications

• G05D16/20 Primary

  characterised by the use of electric means · CPC title

• G05D7/0647 Primary

  the plurality of throttling means being arranged in series · CPC title

• G05D7/0113

  the sensing element acting as a valve · CPC title

• H10W72/07231

  Techniques · CPC title

• H10P72/00

  Handling or holding of wafers, substrates or devices during manufacture or treatment thereof · CPC title