Systems and Methods for Measuring, Monitoring and Controlling Ozone Concentration
AssigneeIntermolecular, Inc.
InventorsShouQian Shao, Jay DeDontney, Jason Wright
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods to determine ozone concentration in a gas mixture of ozone and oxygen, based on measurements of a total mass flow and a corresponding change in a chamber pressure accepting the mixture flow, can enable the measurements of ozone concentration at low pressure settings. The ozone concentration determination can be applied to a vacuum processing chamber, enabling precision semiconductor processing.
Claims19
A method to determine a concentration of a first gas in a gas mixture comprising the first gas and a second gas, the method comprising
- measuring a total mass flow rate of the gas mixture;
- measuring the rate of change in pressure corresponding to the mass flow rate of a chamber accepting the gas mixture;
- and
- calculating a concentration of the first gas using the total mass flow rate and the rate of change in pressure.
A gas concentration sensor to determine a concentration of a first gas in a gas mixture comprising the first gas and a second gas, the gas concentration sensor comprising
- a mass flow meter to measure a mass flow rate of the gas mixture;
- a chamber accepting the mixture gas flow;
- a pressure gauge coupled to the chamber to measure a pressure of the chamber;
- and
- a controller coupled to an output of the mass flow meter and an output of the pressure gauge, the controller configured to produce a signal related to the concentration of the first gas based on the mass flow rate and the rate of change in pressure corresponding to the mass flow rate.
A method to configure a process chamber utilizing ozone generated from an ozone generator accepting an oxygen flow, the method comprising
- installing a chamber in fluid communication with the process chamber;
- coupling a pressure output from a pressure gauge measuring a pressure in the chamber to a system controller;
- coupling an output flow from the ozone generator accepting an oxygen input flow to the chamber;
- coupling an oxygen flow output measuring the oxygen input flow to the system controller;
- programming the system controller to calculate an ozone concentration from the pressure output and the oxygen flow output.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.