International Business Machines Corporation

Mark C Easton

Joseph P DeGeorge

Embodiments of the present invention provide a vacuum trap labyrinth with improved trapping characteristics. The vacuum trap labyrinth comprised of an inner part and an outer part that fit together while in use, and come apart for easy cleaning during maintenance. The vacuum trap labyrinth is installed in a catchpot. In one embodiment, an O-ring is used to seal off an area of the catchpot to facilitate a visual inspection.

Vacuum trap labyrinth

Methods, systems and apparatus for automatically maintaining a pressure differential for the continuous delivery of a liquid to semiconductor manufacturing equipment. A refillable bulk liquid delivery system includes a plurality of canisters residing along a liquid flow path, whereby an over pressure is detected within at least one of the canisters. The over pressure may be detected using an automatic venting circuit or a programmable logic controller programmed for detecting such over pressures. The over pressure is then exhausted by removing excess pressure from the canister through a venting valve to maintain a Delta pressure across the canisters for continuously delivering the liquid along the liquid flow path.

Automatic venting of refillable bulk liquid canisters

A flow monitoring system ( ) for and method of monitoring the flow of processing gases in a wafer processing system ( ) during the manufacturing of microelectronic devices. The wafer processing system includes a wafer processing chamber ( ) in fluid communication with a gas delivery system ( ) via a common conduit ( ). The gas delivery system includes a plurality of gas sources ( ) each having a flow regulator ( ) and a flow meter ( ). The flow monitoring system includes a total flow meter ( ) in fluid communication with the common conduit between the gas delivery system and the processing chamber. When a gas is flowed into wafer processing chamber from one of the gas sources, the comparator compares a first flow signal from the total flow meter to a second signal from the flow meter corresponding to the active gas source to determine whether or not the corresponding flow regulator is properly calibrated.

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New Paltz, NY, United States of America

Mark C Easton