Edwards Limited

Michael Roger Czerniak

Nigel James Gibbins

James Robert Smith

Christopher Mark Bailey

Andrew James Seeley

Duncan Michael Price

Gary Peter Knight

Gareth David Stanton

Darren Mennie

Derek Martin Baker

Laurent Marc Philippe

Ingo Stephen Graham

Clive Marcus Lloyd Tunna

Jack Raymond Tattersall

Michael Mooney

A vacuum pumping system which comprises a plurality of vacuum pumping arrangements for evacuating a flammable gas stream and exhausting the gas stream through an exhaust outlet. A housing houses the vacuum pumping arrangements and forms an air flow duct for an air flow for mixing with the exhaust gas stream output from the exhaust outlet in a mixing region in the housing. An airflow generator generates an air flow through the air flow duct to cause mixing of air with the flammable gas stream to a percentage of the flammable gas in the air flow lower than the lower flammability limit of the flammable gas. An airflow sensor senses the flow of air for determining if the air flow is sufficient to dilute the flammable gas to lower than said percentage.

Vacuum pumping system

Dry pumps are used to pump a variety of gas mixtures from the semiconductor industry. The present invention provides a liquid ring pump located between the dry pump and an abatement device to remove soluble corrosive materials prior to the exhaust gases entry to the abatement device, the work fluid exhausted from the liquid ring pump being separated from the gas prior to entry to the abatement device.

Apparatus for evacuating a corrosive effluent gas stream from a processing chamber

The present invention provides a method of treating an exhaust gas streamfrom a processing chamber. The method comprises the steps of: conveying the exhaust gas from the processing chamber using a vacuum pumping arrangementor atmospheric line; abating the exhaust gas in an abatement regionof an abatement device; and injecting a cooling agent, such as a liquid, downstream of the abatement region to cool the abated gases in a cooling regionby phase change of the cooling agent.

Method of treating an exhaust gas stream

In a method of controlling operation of a processing system, a host computer, a process tool and a component of an evacuation system, for example an abatement tool, are connected to a system bus. The abatement tool monitors signals transmitted on the system bus between the host computer and the process tool, and signals received directly from the process tool. The abatement tool uses information contained within the monitored signals to generate a signal for the process tool regarding an operating characteristic of the abatement tool. This signal is transmitted either directly or over the system bus to the process tool, which uses the generated signal to control an operating state of the process tool.

Evacuation system alerts based on process tool systems bus monitoring

The present invention relates to a vacuum pumping system () which comprises: a vacuum pumping mechanism () and a motor () for driving the vacuum pumping mechanism. Means () are provided for determining a cumulative load on the vacuum pumping system over time by monitoring a characteristic of the motor over that time. Means () are also provided for activating a maintenance activity on the system when the cumulative load exceeds a predetermined amount.

Vacuum pumping systems

Method of controlling operation of a processing system

Apparatus comprising: a chamber having a chamber inlet and a chamber outlet; a first inlet for receiving a first gas stream; a second inlet for receiving a second gas stream; a first outlet for outputting the first gas stream to a first vacuum pump; a second outlet for outputting the second gas stream to a second vacuum pump; a conduit network for connecting the first inlet to the first outlet and for connecting the second inlet to the second outlet such that, for each gas stream, first and second flow paths are defined between its respective inlet and outlet, the first flow path passing through the chamber inlet and the chamber outlet, and the second flow path by-passing the chamber, and means for routing the gas streams through the network such that when one gas stream flows along its first flow path, the other gas stream flows along its second flow path.

Growing community of inventors

Partridge Green, United Kingdom

Michael Roger Czerniak