Ventilation – Clean room
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-26
2001-07-24
Ferensic, Denise L. (Department: 3744)
Ventilation
Clean room
Reexamination Certificate
active
06264550
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clean room used to fabricate semiconductor devices and a clean room remodeling method used to remodel an existing clean room to provide a clean room with a different specification if necessary, and to remodel a general passage or room adjacent to a clean room to provide a clean room.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Semiconductor devices are extremely sensitive to dusts such as dust particles in their fabrication process. Hence, it is customary that semiconductor devices are variously processed on the fabrication line in a clean room. A clean room generally comprises a working room used to fabricate semiconductor devices in actual practice, a supply chamber built in a space above the ceiling of the working room to supply the air to the working room, a dust-collecting filter for removing dust particles from the air supplied to the working room, a grated panel built on the floor of the working room to let in the air, a return chamber for returning the air from the grated panel through a circulation duct and an air conditioner for circulating the air in the sequential order of the supply chamber, the working room and the return chamber and which is also used to adjust the temperature and the humidity of the air.
A cleanliness of clean room changes depending upon factors such as an integration degree of semiconductor devices manufactured therein. A variety of dust-collecting filters are used in response to a required cleanliness. As a dust-collecting filter, there are selectively employed a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter and a ULPA (Ultra Low Penetration Air) filter, etc. Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 5-149591 and Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 3-177732, for example, described such clean room.
So far a new clean room is required, it is customary that a new clean room is built in a vacant lot, including a foundation work. The reason for this will be described. As the semiconductor technologies are advanced rapidly, requirements concerning the specifications of the new clean room become severer than those of the prior art. Hence, it was rather easy to build a new clean room including the setting of blow capacities of air conditioners and a layout of places in which dust-collecting filters are located.
However, recently, a difficulty in maintaining a labor power and obtaining a building lot increases, and a cost of building a clean room occupies a large ratio of the entire cost. Therefore, it is expected that it becomes more and more difficult to build a semiconductor factory including a clean room.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the aforesaid aspect, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of remodeling an existing clean room building into a clean room which may satisfy a new required specification.
In order to attain the above-described object, according to the present invention, there is provided a clean room remodeling method for remodeling a clean room including an air conditioner and a return chamber located on a first floor, a semiconductor fabrication working room located on a second floor above the first floor and a supply chamber located in a space above the ceiling of the working room to supply the air to the working room. This method is comprised of the steps of forming a floor of the working room as a grated panel structure, forming a ceiling of the working room as a system ceiling, disposing a first dust-collecting filter in a ceiling of the working room at its area in which a high cleanliness is required partly, disposing a second dust-collecting filter or an air-shielding member in ceilings of other areas and using the air conditioner as it is.
According to the present invention, the first dust-collecting filter is a ULPA filter and the second dust-collecting filter is a HEPA filter.
According to the present invention, there is provided a clean room remodeling method in which a clean room is expanded by removing a wall which partitions a clean room and a room adjacent to the clean room. This clean room remodeling method is comprised of a process for setting a first detachable partition panel near the wall within the clean room, a process for removing the wall, a process for setting a second detachable partition panel at a place from which the wall was removed, a process for removing the first partition panel, a process for cleaning air in the room and a process for joining the clean room and the room by removing the second partition panel after the process of cleaning the air in the room is completed.
According to the present invention, the room is a clean room.
According to the present invention, there is provided a clean room remodeling method which is comprised of a process for expanding a clean room area by removing a whole-process direction wall between an existing clean room and a general room, a process for installing an interbay transportation apparatus in an upper portion of an area which was the general room, a process for extending a process line provided in the direction substantially perpendicular to the whole-process direction, and a process for partitioning an area which was a clean room and an area in which the interbay transportation apparatus is installed.
According to the present invention, there is provided a clean room remodeling method which is comprised of a process for dividing an existing clean room having a plurality of air conditioners into a plurality of areas corresponding to the unit of the air conditioner by a partition panel, a process for constructing each of divided areas sequentially in order to increase a cleanliness, a process for cleaning the air of every area whose construction is ended, and a process for removing a partition panel when the adjacent area reaches the same predetermined cleanliness.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method of remodeling a general room into a clean room which is comprised of the steps of, with respect to an existing building having a first floor, a second floor, and a space above a ceiling of the second floor, providing an air conditioner and a return chamber on the first floor, forming a floor of the second floor as a grated panel structure, disposing a dust-collecting filter in the ceiling of the second floor, providing a supply chamber in the space above the ceiling of the second floor, joining the return chamber and the supply chamber by a duct, and forming the second floor as a semiconductor fabrication working room.
According to the present invention, in a clean room including an air conditioner and a return chamber provided on a first floor, a semiconductor fabrication working room provided on a second floor above the first floor and a supply chamber located in the space above the ceiling of the working room to supply the air to the working room, the clean room is characterized in that an area having a high cleanliness specification within the working room is isolated by a partitioning member from other areas, a first dust-collecting filter having a high cleanliness specification on the ceiling of a working room space surrounded by the partitioning member and a floor of the working room space is formed as a grated panel structure.
According to the present invention, the partitioning member comprises an acrylic board processed by an electrostatic preventing treatment.
Further, according to the present invention, the working room comprises a working room space surrounded by the partitioning member and a surrounding working room which have a difference of cleanliness level greater than 100 times therebetween.
Furthermore, a ceiling of an area other than the area having a high cleanliness specification of the working room includes an air-insulating member or a second dust-collecting filter whose cleanliness is lower than that of the first dust-collecting filter.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4549472 (1985-10-01), Endo et al.
patent: 4667579 (1987-05-01), Daw
patent: 4693175 (1987-09-01), Hashimoto
patent: 4850268 (1989-07-01), Saito
Boles Derek S.
Crowell & Moring , L.L.P.
Ferensic Denise L.
Nippon Steel Semiconductor Corporation
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