Sci Systems, Inc.

Gregory L Hayes

Ronald R DuRoss

Dennis A Sierk

Stephen G Geist

A system including a plurality of gas flow control units in cabinets which are connected to distribute process gas, on demand, to a plurality of utilization locations known as 'tool' locations in a semi-conductor manufacturing plant. Transducers are used in the system to measure pressures and other control parameters. Zero calibration of the transducers is provided by automatically subjecting each transducer to a reference computer routine to compute the difference between the standard value and the transducer output, and store the difference as an 'offset' to correct the output of the transducer. Thus, re-calibration is performed simply and quickly, at a relatively low labor cost and with relatively little downtime for the system.

Process gas distribution system and method with automatic transducer

Gas flow control units in cabinet are connected to distribute process gas, on demand, to a plurality of utilization locations known as 'tool' locations in a semi-conductor manufacturing plant. The flow control units are adapted to deliver process gas selectively from one of two supply tanks to any one or all of four different tool locations. Simple, fast, low-cost purging of the gas delivery conduits is provided to facilitate maintenance, gas cylinder changes, etc. Means are provided to enable pulse purging of the long gas delivery conduit from the cabinet to the tool when flow-through or other purging is not possible.

Process gas distribution system and method

A plurality of gas flow control units in cabinets are connected to distribute process gas, on demand, to a plurality of utilization locations known as 'tool' locations in a semi-conductor manufacturing plant. Each gas flow control unit is connected to a single tool interface controller over a single communications cable. The status and operational characteristics of the individual units are communicated through the tool interface controller to a supervisory control computer by means of polling. Each flow control cabinet has its own data processor, and can be operated alone. Also, the supervisory computer can be used to operate each cabinet, as well as to monitor operations of the system. Gas demand and other signals are communicated from each tool location to the control units through a single cable connected to the interface controller, thus reducing the original wiring cost. Changing the communications path to accompany a change of the tool to which a given conduit in one of the cabinets delivers its gas can be done quickly, in software, with a few keystrokes. Mechanical re-wiring is not needed.

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Fayetteville, TN, United States of America

Gregory L Hayes