KR20000066176A - Buffer module one body type gate valve - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A gate valve as one body with a buffer module is provided to prevent an operation rate of a process chamber from being decreased by a periodic cleaning of the valve by easily detaching a window for cleaning while checking if the operation of the valve is normal, and to eliminate an unnecessary cost by exchanging O-rings only. CONSTITUTION: A gate valve as one body with a buffer module has a valve housing(100), a blade(210) and a body. The valve housing has a spacer part(102) of a predetermined length extended from a rear side of a wafer movement path(110). A cleaning port(120) of a constant area connected to the wafer movement path is formed on the spacer part. A transparent window is detachably installed in the cleaning port so that the inside of the wafer movement path and the blade can be observed.

Description

Buffer module integrated gate valve {BUFFER MODULE ONE BODY TYPE GATE VALVE}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a gate valve used for isolation between a transfer module and a process chamber in semiconductor processing equipment. In particular, the present invention is divided into a buffer housing module and a valve housing. By improving the existing assembly form, it is possible to solve the difficulty of maintenance and improve productivity.

In a semiconductor manufacturing process, a gate valve is used between a process chamber and a transfer module of a system in which several process chambers using vacuum are connected to each chamber for isolation.

As shown in FIG. 1, the gate valve is composed of a valve housing 20 assembled with a buffer housing module and connecting the modules, and a body 10 in which driving components are embedded.

The valve housing 20 has a passage 21 for moving a wafer at the center of the front surface thereof, and the passage 21 has a structure that is blocked or opened by the blade while the blade is inserted in the middle portion. In addition, an O-ring 22 for airtightness is attached to the front surface of the valve housing 20.

Figure 2 shows the structure of the gate valve in more detail, it is inserted into the valve housing 20 from the bottom surface to open or block the passage 21 to isolate or release between the modules 30, the pneumatic signal of the equipment controller Air cylinder (11) that moves up and down by operation, Cam gear train (12) that reliably transmits the driving force of the air cylinder (11) to the blade (30), and the air port (Air port) ) And a heating port (Heating port (not shown)). In addition, the blade 30 has a sealing 31 for airtightness is bonded to the contact surface with an adhesive.

As shown in FIG. 3, the gate valve configured as described above is coupled to the valve housing 20 and the buffer housing module 40 coupled to the transfer module (not shown) as a spacer chamber.

The blade 30 is fitted from the lower side of the valve housing 20 and positioned perpendicular to the wafer movement passage 21. In this state, when the air cylinder 11 of the valve is operated, the blade 30 is raised to block the wafer movement passage 21 in the valve housing 20.

On the other hand, due to the toxic gas (Toxic gas) used in the semiconductor manufacturing process, a certain amount of contaminants such as polymer (Polymer) is easily adsorbed to the blade 30 and the wall surface of the process chamber. In this case, periodic cleaning should be accompanied because it causes performance deterioration such as difficult to maintain airtightness or lower yield.

However, in the related art, the internal cleaning including the blades 30 is only required by disassembling the entire gate valve including the buffer housing module 40 coupled to the transfer module side and the valve housing 20 coupled to the buffer housing module 40. It has a disadvantage that the working procedure is very cumbersome and requires a lot of time.

In addition, the conventional blade 30 has a seal 31 is bonded with an adhesive, when the seal 31 is damaged due to carelessness during cleaning, it is impossible to replace only the seal 31 to replace the entire blade 30 By doing so, there was a problem of causing unnecessary cost loss.

The present invention is to solve the conventional problems as described above, the present invention is to integrate the valve housing of the buffer housing module and the gate valve of the spacer chamber function, so that the inside can be easily cleaned when necessary while observing the inside visually The purpose is to provide a buffer module integrated gate valve that can improve workability and minimize time loss.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to improve the coupling structure of the blade and the sealing to minimize the cost loss by allowing only the replacement of the seal without replacing the entire blade unnecessarily in case of damage to the seal.

The present invention for achieving the above object, the valve housing is provided between the transfer module and the process chamber to form a wafer movement passage, and the blade is coupled to the valve housing from the bottom to block the wafer movement passage to isolate both chambers; A gate valve comprising a body incorporating a drive part of a blade, comprising: a valve housing having a spacer portion having a predetermined length extending from a rear side of a wafer movement passage; A cleaning port having a predetermined area communicating with the wafer movement passage is provided on an upper surface of the spacer portion; The cleaning port is characterized in that the transparent window is detachably installed so that the inside of the wafer movement passage and the blade can be visually observed.

1 is a perspective view illustrating a gate valve for maintaining a vacuum between a process chamber and a transfer module in a general semiconductor process equipment;

2 is a front view showing the structure of the gate valve,

3 is a cross-sectional view showing the operation structure of the gate valve,

4 is a front view showing a buffer module integrated gate valve according to the present invention;

5 is a cross-sectional view showing a valve housing of the buffer module integrated gate valve according to the present invention;

6 is a plan view of the housing,

7 is a perspective view showing a blade of the buffer module integrated gate valve according to the present invention;

8 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line B-B of FIG. 7.

<Description of the code | symbol about the principal part of drawing>

100; Valve housing 101; Heating port

102; Spacer part 110; Wafer transfer path

111-122; O-ring 120; Cleaning port

121; Acrylic windows 200; body

210; Blade 211; recess

212 Seal

Such a characteristic configuration of the present invention and its effects will be more apparent through the detailed description of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 4 shows a buffer module integrated gate valve according to the present invention, Figure 5 shows the structure of the valve housing.

As shown in FIG. 4, the gate valve includes a valve housing 100 in which a buffer housing module serving as a conventional spacer chamber is integrally formed, and a body 200 in which driving components are embedded.

A passage 110 for wafer movement is formed on the front surface of the valve housing 100, and an O-ring 111 is attached to maintain airtight along the edge of the inlet of the passage 110.

In addition, although not shown, the body 200 of the gate valve has an air cylinder for generating a driving force of the blade 210 by an up / down operation, and a cam gear train for stably transmitting the driving force of the air cylinder to the blade 210. The built-in back is configured to block or open the wafer movement path 110 by raising or lowering the blade 210 inside the valve housing 100.

5 shows the features of the present invention in more detail.

The valve housing 100 has a spacer portion 102 of a predetermined length extending from the rear side of the wafer movement passage 110 to integrate the existing buffer module, and the front and rear lengths thereof are relatively long. It is not necessary to have a separate spacer chamber when installing between the and.

As described above, the valve housing 100 has a wafer movement passage 110 formed from the front side to the rear side, and the contamination state and operation of the inside of the wafer movement passage 110 as the process proceeds on the upper surface of which the surface area is maximized by the integrated design. The cleaning port 120 having a constant area is formed to monitor whether there is an abnormality and to easily clean the inside of the passage 110 when necessary.

The cleaning port 120 is normally blocked by the acrylic window 121 and through which the inside of the cleaning port 120 can be observed. The acrylic window 121 is screwed to the upper surface of the valve housing 100, and the O-ring 122 is inserted therebetween to maintain airtightness.

In the lower portion of the front side of the wafer movement passage 110, a blade 210 is inserted from the bottom of the valve housing 100 to isolate each module connected to both front and rear sides of the valve housing 100 to block the wafer movement passage 110. It is in a state of doing. When the blade 210 descends, the passage 110 opens again.

In addition, as shown in Figures 4 and 6, the gate valve according to the present invention is provided with a heating port 101 penetrating the valve housing 100 up and down, respectively, so that the temperature in the valve housing 100 is always in a proper state. It is possible to keep as. This provides the effect of preventing the sticking of the polymer.

Reference numeral 123 denotes a screw hole for fixing the acrylic window 121, and 124 denotes screw assembly holes formed in the flange for fixing the valve housing 200 to the chamber, respectively.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIGS. 7 to 8, the blade 210 of the buffer module integrated gate valve according to the present invention has a groove 211 formed along an end thereof, and a seal 212 formed in the groove 211. This is in the sandwiched form. The groove 211 has a narrow inlet portion and is widened toward the inside when looking at its cross-sectional shape, so that the sealing 212 can be fixed without using a separate fixing means such as an adhesive. Therefore, even when the seal 212 is damaged, only the seal 212 can be replaced without having to replace the entire blade 210.

Hereinafter, the operation and effect of the buffer module-integrated gate valve according to the present invention.

In FIG. 5, the blade 210 blocks or opens the wafer movement path 110 while being raised and lowered by an air cylinder embedded in the body 200.

The operator may periodically observe the internal contamination degree and the abnormal operation of the valve according to the process through the upper acrylic window 121 of the valve housing 100. Therefore, it is possible to reduce trial and error, which is periodically performed regardless of contamination.

If contamination is observed after a certain time, the operator first stops the process, and then separates the valve housing 100 from each chamber. When the gate valve is separated from the chamber, the inside of the valve housing 100 and the blade 210 may be cleaned by disassembling the acrylic window 121 on the upper surface of the valve housing 100.

In this case, the process of separating the gate valve from the chamber and disassembling the body 200 and the blade 210 from the valve housing 100 is greatly shortened, thereby reducing labor and reducing work loss due to process interruption. Can be reduced.

In addition, according to the present invention, since the valve housing 100 includes the heating port 101, it is not necessary to install a separate heater device, thereby simplifying the configuration around the chamber.

The above description merely illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may make modifications and changes to the present invention without changing the gist of the present invention.

As described above, the buffer module-integrated gate valve according to the present invention includes a cleaning port for observing and cleaning the inside of the housing in the valve housing, and always checks for abnormal operation through an acrylic window and easily opens the window if necessary. By making it possible to disassemble and clean, it is possible to reduce the operation rate of the process chamber due to the periodic cleaning of the valve and to prevent malfunction.

In addition, it is possible to prevent unnecessary cost increase by replacing only the O-ring without replacing the entire blade when the O-ring is broken.

Claims (5)

A valve housing disposed between the transfer module and the process chamber to form a wafer movement passage, a blade coupled to the valve housing from an underside to block the wafer movement passage to isolate both chambers, and a body containing the drive parts of the blade In the gate valve consisting of, The valve housing (100) is provided with a spacer portion (102) of a predetermined length extending from the rear side of the wafer movement passage; A cleaning port 120 having a predetermined area communicating with the wafer movement path 110 is provided on an upper surface of the spacer portion 102; The buffer port integrated gate valve, characterized in that the transparent port 121 is detachably installed in the cleaning port (120) to visually observe the inside of the wafer movement passage (120) and the blade (210). The buffer module integrated gate valve according to claim 1, wherein a heating port (101) having a length in the vertical direction is provided at both sides of the valve housing (100). The buffer module integrated gate valve according to claim 1, wherein the window (121) is made of acrylic material. The buffer module integrated gate valve of claim 1, wherein a recess (212) is formed at an end of the blade (210) so that a sealing (212) is fitted into the recess (211). 5. The buffer module integrated gate valve according to claim 4, wherein the groove (211) has a cross-sectional shape of which is narrow inlet and wider inwardly.