US 7,467,027 B2Granted

Compensation for thermal siphoning in mass flow controllers

AssigneeMKS Instruments, Inc.

InventorsJunhua Ding, Michael L'Bassi, Kaveh H. Zarkar

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Abstract

A thermal mass flow controller for controlling flow rate of a fluid includes a conduit configured to receive the fluid, a pressure sensor that measures the pressure of the fluid as the fluid flows within the conduit, a temperature sensor that measures the ambient temperature of the fluid, and a thermal sensor that generates an output representative of the flow rate of the fluid. The thermal mass flow controller further includes a control system configured to monitor the output from the thermal sensor, the pressure measured by the pressure sensor, and the ambient temperature measured by the temperature sensor, to regulate flow of the fluid within the conduit so as to compensate for a shift in the thermal sensor output caused by thermal siphoning.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A thermal mass flow controller for controlling flow rate of a fluid, the thermal mass flow controller comprising:

a conduit configured to receive the fluid;
a pressure sensor configured to measure pressure of the fluid, as the fluid flows within the conduit;
a temperature sensor configured to measure ambient temperature of the fluid;
a thermal sensor configured to generate an output representative of the flow rate of the fluid, the output comprising a voltage output;
and
a control system configured to monitor the output from the thermal sensor, the pressure measured by the pressure sensor, and the ambient temperature measured by the temperature sensor, to regulate flow of the fluid within the conduit so as to compensate for a shift in the thermal sensor output caused by thermal siphoning.
wherein the thermal sensor, when heated, is configured to generate a temperature differential as the fluid flows within the heated sensor, and includes a temperature measurement system configured to measure the temperature differential, and a thermal sensor tube having a tubular configuration;
and wherein the thermal sensor is configured to convert the measured temperature differential into the voltage output;
wherein the control system is configured to calibrate the termal sensor with a zero flow voltage Vze that represents the voltage output at a zero fluid flow, and a full scale flow voltage Vfs that represents the voltage output at a full scale fluid flow;
wherein Vze and Vfs are known empirical functions of the pressure measured by the pressure sensor and the temperature measured by the temperature sensor;
and
wherein Vze and Vfs further comprise known empirical functions of a Grashof number Gr that depends on the measured pressure and temperature;
and
wherein the Grashof number Gr is given by:
Gr=g.α.(T−Ta).d3.M2.P2/(μ3.R2.T2),
where g is a gravitational constant;
α is a thermal expansion coefficient of the fluid;
Ta is the temperature measured by the temperature sensor;
T is a temperature of the fluid and depends on Ta;
d is a diameter of the thermal sensor tube;
M is a mass of the fluid;
P is the pressure measured by the pressure sensor;
μ is a viscosity of the fluid;
and
R is a universal gas law constant.

22 more elements

A method of compensating for thermal siphoning in a thermal mass flow controller for controlling flow rate of a fluid, the thermal mass flow controller including a conduit configured to allow flow of the fluid between an inlet and an outlet of the conduit, and a thermal sensor configured to generate an output representative of the flow rate of the fluid, the method comprising:

monitoring measurements of a pressure of the fluid and an ambient temperature of the fluid;
detecting a shift in the output of the thermal sensor caused by thermal siphoning;
and
regulating flow of the fluid into the inlet of the conduit and out of the outlet of the conduit, so as to compensate for the detected shift, the act of regulating flow of the fluid including:
calibrating the thermal sensor with a zero flow voltage Vze that represents the voltage output at a zero fluid flow, and a full scale flow voltage Vfs that represents the voltage output at a full scale fluid flow, where Vze and Vfs are known functions of the pressure and temperature measurements, the thermal sensor output being calibrated at a calibration pressure P0, a calibration ambient temperature T0, and a calibration orientation Pos0, by computing and storing a plurality of calibration values Vze0, . . . V0, . . . Vfs0 of the output voltage, at corresponding flow rates 0, . . . , Q0, . . . , and Qfs0, and compensating for the shift in the thermal sensor output caused by thermal siphoning, based on the plurality of stored calibration values, wherein a zero flow voltage Vze1 and the full scale voltage Vfs1 are calculated using the known empirical functions fze(P, Ta, α, μ, M, Pos) and ffs(P, Ta, α, μ, M, Pos), at measured values P1, T1, and V1 of the pressure, temperature, and sensor output voltage respectively, to calculate a thermal sensor voltage output V1′ that has been compensated for thermal siphoning;
and
determining a flow rate for which thermal siphoning has been compensated for, by searching the plurality of stored calibration values to find a corresponding flow rate based on the calculated V1′.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.