Exhaust system control
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsChandrakanth Gopularam, Duc Dang Buckius
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems, methods, and apparatus including designs embodied in machine-readable media for exhaust control. One of the methods includes measuring an airflow through an exhaust path of a gas panel of a semiconductor processing system; determining whether the measured airflow is within a defined range; in response to determining that the measured airflow is outside of the defined range, selectively opening or closing the exhaust gate by an incremental amount.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- measuring an airflow through an exhaust path of a gas panel of a semiconductor processing system;
- determining whether the measured airflow is within a defined range;
- in response to determining that the measured airflow is within the defined range, maintaining a position of an exhaust gate in the exhaust path;
- and
- in response to determining that the measured airflow is outside of the defined range, selectively opening or closing the exhaust gate by an incremental amount.
A system comprising:
- a plurality of gas panels;
- a plurality of exhaust paths, each exhaust path coupling a respective gas panel with a common exhaust line;
- each exhaust path comprising:
- an airflow sensor;
- and
- a controllable exhaust gate, the controllable exhaust gate configured to move relative to the exhaust path to define a degree to which the exhaust path is open to the common exhaust line.
One or more computer-readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
- measuring an airflow through an exhaust path of a gas panel of a semiconductor processing system;
- determining whether the measured airflow is within a defined range;
- in response to determining that the measured airflow is within the defined range, maintaining a position of an exhaust gate in the exhaust path;
- and
- in response to determining that the measured airflow is outside of the defined range, selectively opening or closing the exhaust gate by an incremental amount.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.