Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids – Process – With nondrying treating of material
Reexamination Certificate
2007-03-27
2007-03-27
Gravini, S. (Department: 3749)
Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids
Process
With nondrying treating of material
C034S407000, C034S078000, C034S080000, C118S724000
Reexamination Certificate
active
11068804
ABSTRACT:
The downtime of a vacuum processing apparatus due to wet cleaning is reduced. In a vacuum processing apparatus that requires aging for its chamber or process container after vacuum evacuation of the apparatus and before actual processing of a workpiece, when the chamber has been opened to atmosphere for the purpose of wet cleaning or component replacement, the apparatus comprises a high precision absolute pressure gauge for use in processing, a wide range gauge capable of measuring a wide range of pressures, and a controller, wherein the controller uses a pressure trend during vacuum evacuation to determine whether the vacuum evacuation is satisfactory, and starts aging upon determining that the vacuum evacuation is satisfactory even if the actual pressure is not below a prescribed value. The controller determines relationship between an apparent flow rate (leak rate) measured by the absolute pressure gauge when the chamber is vacuum sealed, and a chamber pressure measured by the wide range gauge, and then measures only the pressure to determine whether a baseline leak rate is reached.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4673456 (1987-06-01), Spencer et al.
patent: 5157960 (1992-10-01), Brehm et al.
patent: 58-215521 (1983-12-01), None
patent: 2002-346367 (2002-12-01), None
Edamura Manabu
Makino Akitaka
Nakatsuka Takanori
Tauchi Susumu
Yoshigai Motohiko
Antonelli, Terry Stout and Kraus, LLP.
Gravini S.
Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation
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