Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – Evacuation apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
2003-12-02
2004-08-03
Douglas, Steven O. (Department: 3751)
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
Evacuation apparatus
C141S082000, C454S043000, C454S049000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06769461
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for discharging a waste gas in a semiconductor manufacturing process. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for discharging a waste gas in a semiconductor manufacturing process, which can keep constant the amount of purge of nitrogen for inducing the waste gas to discharge while increasing a temperature of the waste gas so that dust of the waste gas is not accumulated on the inner wall of a pipe, and prevent an accident such as a burn from generating in workers.
2. Related Prior Art
Generally, in a semiconductor manufacturing process, for example, a wafer treatment process, an oxide film is formed on a wafer by supplying a various kinds of reaction gases to a wafer disposed within a chamber. Such reaction gases are highly noxious and are thus fatal to the human body. Further, there is a possibility that they may explode when being mixed with other gases or air. Therefore, they have to be converted into harmless gases through reaction and be then discharged.
FIG. 6
shows a system for discharging those waste gases after reaction. A reaction gas within a chamber
10
for processing a wafer is discharged through a vacuum pump
12
. The gas is burnt and purified by a gas scrubber
16
connected to an exhaust line of the vacuum pump
12
through a valve
14
.
In such a waste gas discharge system, however, as the valve
14
employs a mechanical open/close mode by a Bellows, etc. using pneumaticity, the valve
12
is damaged by solidification of dust due to the cooling of the waste gas. For this reason, there is a problem that the process is stopped. Furthermore, if the exhaust line to the gas scrubber
16
is increased, the waste gas is cooled while moving to the exhaust line. Thus there is a danger that the exhaust line may be closed due to solidified dusts. In order to prevent this, an additional processing device must be installed in the exhaust line. This makes the structure complicated.
Considering this problem, the present applicant proposed the Korean Utility Model No. 209874 entitled “Waste Gas Inducing Device” as shown in FIG.
7
. As seen in
FIG. 7
, this device includes an inlet transfer
20
having an inlet port
22
on its outer circumferential face, a discharge transfer
30
inserted into the inlet transfer
20
with an O-ring
34
intervened between them, so that a blow-off gap
32
communicating with the inlet port
22
is formed between the inner circumferential face of the inlet transfer
20
and the bottom of the discharge transfer
30
, a heating casing
40
installed around the inlet transfer
20
to form a heating room
42
and having a nitrogen inlet port
44
formed an outer circumferential face, an electric heat wire
50
surrounding the inlet transfer
20
within the heating room
42
, and a temperature sensor
60
disposed at the exit of the discharge transfer
30
for controlling a temperature of the electric heat wire
50
.
The device may be disposed between the chamber and the vacuum pump, and at the front or rear stage of a subsequent exhaust line or the gas scrubber in the vacuum pump. According to this device, if nitrogen is forcibly sent to the heating room
42
through the nitrogen inlet port
44
, nitrogen is heated by the electric heat wire
50
and is then blown off into the discharge transfer
30
through the inlet port
22
and the blow-off gap
32
. The blown-off nitrogen is mixed with the waste gas introduced via the inlet of the inlet transfer
20
, thus keeping high a temperature of the waste gas so that it is not cooled. Accordingly, dusts of the waste gas are prevented from being stacked. Furthermore, such nitrogen functions to increase the amount of the waste gas introduced into the inlet transfer
20
by means of a purge discharge through the blow-off gap
32
.
In the conventional device, however, as the discharge transfer
30
is fixed to the inlet transfer
20
by means of the O-ring
34
in order to keep the blow-off gap
32
, the blow-off gap
32
is changed due to fluctuation of the discharge transfer
30
. For this reason, the amount of purge of nitrogen is not uniform. As a result, there is a problem that the blow-off gap
32
keeps unstable due to nitrogen. In addition, as a hot heating casing
40
is exposed outwardly, there is a danger that a worker may be burnt while touching the heating casing
40
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for discharging a waste gas in a semiconductor manufacturing process, which can keep constant the amount of purge of nitrogen for inducing the waste gas to discharge while increasing a temperature of the waste gas so that dust of the waste gas is not accumulated.
Another object of the present invention is to prevent an accident such as a burn, etc. from generating in workers.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for discharging a waste gas in a semiconductor (or TFT-LCD) manufacturing process, including an inlet transfer having an inlet port disposed at its outer circumferential face and a support rib disposed at its inner circumferential face; a discharge transfer having a support jaw fixed to a support rib at its outer circumferential face, wherein the discharge transfer is inserted into the inlet transfer so that a blow-off gap communicating with the inlet port is formed between the bottom of the discharge transfer and the inner circumferential face of the inlet transfer and a high-pressure gas room communicating with the inlet port and the blow-off gap is formed between the outer circumferential face of the discharge transfer and the inner circumferential face of the inlet transfer; a transfer cap having the bottom coupled to the top of the inlet transfer, while surrounding the discharge transfer; a heating casing disposed around the inlet transfer and the transfer cap to form a heating room, and having a nitrogen inlet port disposed on its outer circumferential face; an electric heat wire disposed within the heating room; and a temperature sensor for controlling a temperature of the electric heat wire.
According to the present invention, a burn-preventing cap surrounding a heating casing may be further provided with a given distance from the outer circumferential face of the heating casing.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5431600 (1995-07-01), Murata et al.
patent: 6241597 (2001-06-01), Chiang et al.
patent: 6704088 (2004-03-01), Tanimoto
Douglas Steven O.
G W i P S
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