Reagent supply vessel for chemical vapor deposition

A liquid reagent supply vessel assembly, comprising:

• a vessel including floor and wall members defining an interior volume, bounded by interior floor and wall surfaces, for holding liquid reagent, and into which pressurized gas is introduceable to dispense liquid reagent from the vessel;
• a liquid level sensor element for sensing liquid level in the interior volume of the vessel;
• a liquid discharge tube, extending upwardly and exteriorly of the vessel, from a lower open end in the interior volume of the vessel;
• the floor member of the vessel having a sump cavity therein extending downwardly from a main floor surface of the floor member to a sub-floor surface of the sump cavity;
• the lower open end of the liquid discharge tube being positioned in the sump cavity, in close proximity to the sub-floor surface of the sump cavity;
• and
• the liquid level sensor element for sensing liquid level in the interior volume of the vessel extending downwardly to a lower end positioned in the sump cavity.

A reagent supply vessel assembly comprising:

• a closed vessel bounded by a bottom floor member and containing an interior volume for holding reagent;
• the bottom floor member having a main floor surface and containing a sump cavity, with the sump cavity being bounded at its lower end by a subfloor surface;
• a pressurized gas feed tube for flowing pressurizing gas from an exterior locus into the interior volume of the closed vessel;
• a reagent discharge tube extending exteriorly of the closed vessel and into the interior volume of the closed vessel to a lower extremity terminating in the sump cavity;
• and
• a reagent level sensor capable of detecting the level of reagent in the sump cavity the reagent level sensor extending downwardly to a lower end positioned in the sump cavity.

An apparatus comprising:

• a cylindrically shaped closed vessel bounded on its upper end by a top wall member and on its lower end by a bottom wall member to define therewithin an interior volume for holding reagent, the bottom wall member having a main floor surface and containing a dumbbell-shaped sump cavity;
• the sump cavity being bounded at its lower end by a subfloor surface and comprising a reagent level sensor well connected to a reagent discharge tube well by a yoke passage, thereby defining a dumbbell conformation of the sump cavity;
• a reagent level sensor extending from an upper end exterior of the vessel through a centrally located portion of the top wall member and downwardly into the interior volume of the closed vessel to a lower end in the sump cavity;
• a reagent discharge tube extending from an upper end exterior of the vessel downwardly through the top wall member into the interior volume of the closed vessel to a lower end in the sump cavity, with the lower end of the reagent discharge tube being located in non-interfering proximity to the subfloor surface of the sump cavity, and with the upper end of the reagent discharge tube being coupled to a reagent flow control valve;
• a pressurized gas feed tube operationally connected at one end thereof to a pressurized gas source and at another end thereof to the closed vessel for delivery of pressurized gas from the pressurized gas source into the interior volume of the vessel, the pressurized gas feed tube containing a pressurized gas flow control valve therein for control of flow of the pressurized gas therethrough;
• a reagent level signal transmission line operationally connecting the reagent level sensor to a central processing unit;
• a gas control signal transmission line operationally connecting the central processing unit to the gas flow control valve;
• and
• a reagent control signal transmission line operationally connecting the central processing unit to the reagent flow control valve;
• such that when pressurized gas is supplied through the pressurized gas feed tube to the interior volume of the closed vessel, reagent contained therein is forced into the reagent discharge tube and out of the interior volume, and when the level of reagent in the closed vessel reaches a minimum reagent head the reagent level sensor is capable of transmitting a reagent level signal in the reagent level signal transmission line to the central processing unit and the central processing unit is capable of receiving the reagent level signal from the reagent level signal transmission line and transmitting (i) a corresponding reagent control signal in the reagent control signal transmission line to the reagent flow control valve to close the reagent flow control valve and (ii) transmitting a corresponding gas control signal in the gas control signal transmission line to the gas flow control valve to close the gas flow control valve.

A liquid reagent dispensing system, comprising:

• a reagent supply vessel having a floor with a sump cavity therein;
• a discharge tube extending into and terminating in the sump cavity;
• and
• a liquid level sensor extending into and terminating in the sump cavity, to determine the level of the liquid reagent.

A liquid reagent supply system, comprising:

• a reagent supply vessel having a floor with a sump cavity therein;
• a discharge tube extending into and terminating in the sump cavity for discharge of liquid from the reagent supply vessel;
• and
• a sensor disposed in the sump cavity and operatively arranged to determine the level of the liquid reagent in the vessel.