阅读说明：本技术 钟摆阀 (Pendulum valve ) 是由 安熙俊 金凑泽 于 2021-05-11 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明涉及一种钟摆阀,在半导体工艺的蚀刻线中,其设置于连接管并调节气体量,所述连接管在干式蚀刻装置的腔室和真空泵之间连接真空泵,更详细地,涉及一种钟摆阀,其包括：固定壳,其使得与调节气体量的阀门结合的轴通过密封圈紧贴固定于阀壳；旋转轴(内部轴),其结合于固定壳的内侧,通过提供所述钟摆阀,从而仅使得与阀壳分离的旋转轴以唇封为轴进行旋转,维持钟摆阀的密封特性的同时,可抑制不需要的颗粒和硬化物质排出。(The present invention relates to a pendulum valve which is installed in a connection pipe for adjusting a gas amount in an etching line of a semiconductor process, the connection pipe connecting a vacuum pump between a chamber of a dry etching apparatus and the vacuum pump, and more particularly, to a pendulum valve which includes: a fixing housing which makes a shaft combined with a valve for adjusting the gas amount tightly fixed to a valve housing through a seal ring; and a rotary shaft (inner shaft) coupled to an inner side of the fixed housing, and provided with the pendulum valve, so that only the rotary shaft separated from the valve housing is rotated around the lip seal as an axis, thereby maintaining a sealing property of the pendulum valve and suppressing discharge of unnecessary particles and hardened substances.)

1. A pendulum valve of a semiconductor device manufacturing apparatus disposed between a process-proceeding chamber and a vacuum pump, comprising:

a valve housing having an air passage formed therethrough so as to communicate the chamber with the vacuum pump, and having an operation chamber formed so as to communicate with the air passage;

a valve provided inside the valve housing and opening and closing the air passage by a pendulum motion;

a shaft connected to one end of the valve and rotating the valve;

a motor that rotates the shaft; and the number of the first and second groups,

a gear box which transmits the driving force of the motor to the shaft,

the shaft, comprising:

a fixed casing which penetrates the lower part of the valve casing and is combined and fixed;

a lip seal disposed inside the stationary shell; and the number of the first and second groups,

and a rotating shaft which penetrates the center of the lip seal and is coupled to the inner side of the lip seal, one end of which is coupled to the gear box, and the other end of which is coupled to one end of the valve, and which rotates around the lip seal as a shaft by a driving force transmitted through the gear box, thereby rotating the valve.

2. Pendulum valve according to claim 1,

the shaft further includes a first cover and a second cover respectively coupled to both side portions of the stationary case in a manner of being coupled to end portions of the rotating shaft in a penetrating manner.

3. Pendulum valve according to claim 1,

the shaft further includes a bushing provided inside the stationary case along both sides of the lip seal so as to prevent the lip seal from being separated from the stationary case.

4. Pendulum valve according to claim 1,

a sealing ring is provided for vacuum sealing at a ridge part of the fixed casing closely attached to the lower part of the valve casing.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a PENDULUM VALVE (PENDULUM VALVE) which is provided in a connection pipe connecting a vacuum pump between a chamber of a dry etching apparatus and the vacuum pump and adjusts a gas amount in an etching line of a semiconductor process, and more particularly, to a PENDULUM VALVE comprising: a fixed housing, which makes a shaft combined with a valve (valve gate) for adjusting gas quantity tightly fixed on the valve housing through a sealing ring; and a rotary shaft (inner shaft) coupled to an inner side of the fixed housing, and provided with the pendulum valve, so that only the rotary shaft separated from the valve housing is rotated around the lip seal as an axis, thereby maintaining a sealing property of the pendulum valve and suppressing discharge of unnecessary particles and hardened substances.

Background

In general, in a semiconductor process, an etching apparatus has a structure in which a chamber in which an etching process is performed and a vacuum pump for applying a vacuum to the chamber or discharging a residual gas in the chamber to the outside are connected to each other, and a swing valve is generally provided in a connection pipe connecting the chamber and the vacuum pump.

The pendulum valve includes: a valve housing equipped with an inflow port and an outflow port; a valve located in the interior space of the valve housing and connected to a support arm that is rigidly connected to the shaft. The shaft is rotatable around the longitudinal axis and movable in the up-and-down axial direction.

Fig. 1 is a plan view showing a pendulum valve according to the prior art, and fig. 2 is a sectional view. Here, fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line I-ii shown in fig. 1.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, a pendulum valve 50 according to the related art is generally provided to a connection pipe 40 and opened and closed, the connection pipe 40 connecting a vacuum pump between a chamber of a dry etching apparatus and the vacuum pump, and basically comprises: a valve housing 10 provided to the connection pipe 40; a cap 20 tightly coupled with the valve housing 10; and an opening and closing part 30 which opens and closes the connection pipe 40.

An air passage 37 is vertically formed through the valve housing 10 so as to communicate the chamber with the vacuum pump, and the operation chamber 12 is horizontally formed inside in such a manner as to communicate with the air passage 37. The opening/closing unit 30 includes a disk-shaped valve 31 and a driving unit 33, the driving unit 33 causes the valve 31 to perform a pendulum motion and opens and closes the connection pipe 40, the driving unit 33 includes a stepping motor 32 and a shaft (draft) 38, the shaft 38 is connected to one end of the shaft 34 of the stepping motor via a gear 36, and in this case, one end of the valve 31 is connected to the other end of the shaft 38.

The stepping motor 32 is independently provided at a lower portion of the valve housing 10 so that a shaft 38, which is protrusively provided at an upper portion of the operation chamber 12, is rotated. Accordingly, the valve 31 is rotatably operated with one end thereof connected to the upper portion of the shaft 38, and the air passage 37 is opened and closed. The seal port 39 is provided in the upper portion of the operating chamber 12 so as to be in contact with the air passage 37, and is lowered by the operation of the cylinder 25, and the seal rings 39a and 39b are coupled on both sides so as to firmly seal the valve 31. The stepping motor 32 is operated by an electric signal, and the gear 36 functions to transmit the power of the stepping motor 32 to the shaft 38.

The operation characteristics of the conventional pendulum valve 50 having such a structure will be described.

Fig. 3 and 4 are cross-sections for explaining operation characteristics of a pendulum valve according to the related art, where fig. 3 shows a state where a connection pipe is opened, and fig. 4 shows a state where the connection pipe is closed.

First, a process of opening the connection pipe will be described with reference to fig. 3.

As shown in fig. 3, after being disposed in such a manner that the air passage 37 of the valve housing 10 is located between the chamber and the vacuum pump, a control signal is sent to the stepping motor 32 and the stepping motor 32 is controlled. At this time, the stepping motor 32 is initially operated and rotated in accordance with a set value set in software provided in equipment for manufacturing a semiconductor device.

The rotational force of the stepping motor 32 is transmitted to the shaft 38 through the gear 36. The shaft 38 is rotated by the rotational force of the stepping motor 32 transmitted through the gear 36, and the valve 31 is rotated about the shaft 38, so that the air passage 37 formed in the valve housing 10 is opened, and air is introduced and discharged through the air passage 37. At this time, the seal port 39 is moved upward by the cylinder 25, and is spaced apart from the valve 31 by a predetermined distance.

Referring to fig. 4, a process of closing the connection pipe will be explained.

As shown in fig. 4, the stepping motor 32 rotates in the direction opposite to the rotation direction in fig. 3 by an electric signal provided to the control portion of the pendulum valve 50, the shaft 38 is rotated by the rotational force of the stepping motor through the gear 36, and the rotation at this time rotates in the direction opposite to the rotation direction described above, so that the valve 31 rotates in the reverse direction to seal the air passage 37 of the valve housing 10, and then the air cylinder 25 embedded in a predetermined position of the valve housing 10 is operated. The air cylinder 25 is operated for a predetermined period based on the electric signal value of the software, as in the case of the stepping motor 32.

However, the pendulum valve 50 according to the related art has a problem in that the seal ring 41 is easily compressed and twisted by repeated rotation of the shaft 38, and mechanical hardness becomes weak with time, and thus sealing force is lowered, because the seal ring 41 is provided between the shaft 38 and the valve housing 10. In particular, there is a problem in that materials are crushed due to frequent friction between the shaft 38 and the valve housing 10, thereby generating particles (particles) such as fine sludge.

In the case where a lubricant such as a grease type is applied to the seal ring 41 in order to prevent the above problem, there arises a problem that plasma gas generated in the etching process is easily reacted with the lubricant to be hardened. The hardened substance thus hardened is crushed again by the movement of the seal ring 41, and becomes a cause of generation of particles. That is, the lubricant is hardened and granulated by heat generated by rotation, contact with corrosive gas, and peripheral heat, and is fixed to a wafer and affects rotation, and therefore there is a limit to solve such a problem by applying the lubricant.

Prior art documents

Patent document

(patent document 0001) KR10-2006-0013810A, 2006.02.14

(patent document 0002) KR10-2003-0017204A, 2003.03.03

(patent document 0003) KR20-2019-

Disclosure of Invention

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a pendulum valve in which a shaft coupled to a valve for adjusting a gas amount is formed in a double structure, a fixed housing is fixed to a valve housing in close contact with the valve housing through a seal ring, and a rotary shaft (inner shaft) coupled to the inner side of the fixed housing is rotatably provided through a lip seal (lip seal), so that only the rotary shaft is rotated, thereby suppressing discharge of unnecessary particles and hardened substances while maintaining the sealing characteristics of the pendulum valve.

According to the present invention for achieving one aspect of the object, there is provided a pendulum valve, a pendulum valve of an apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor element being provided between a chamber for process proceeding and a vacuum pump, comprising: a valve housing having an air passage formed therethrough so as to communicate the chamber with the vacuum pump, and having an operation chamber formed so as to communicate with the air passage; a valve provided inside the valve housing and opening and closing the air passage by a pendulum motion; a shaft (draft) connected to one end of the valve and rotating the valve; a motor that rotates the shaft; and a gear box transmitting a driving force of the motor to a shaft, the shaft including: a fixed casing which penetrates the lower part of the valve casing and is combined and fixed; a lip seal disposed inside the stationary shell; and a rotating shaft which penetrates the center of the lip seal and is combined with the inner side of the lip seal, one end part of the rotating shaft is combined with the gear box, the other end part of the rotating shaft is combined with one end part of the valve, and the rotating shaft rotates by taking the lip seal as a shaft according to the driving force transmitted by the gear box, so that the valve rotates.

Preferably, the shaft further includes a first cover and a second cover, and the first cover and the second cover are coupled to both side portions of the stationary case so as to be coupled to the end portion of the rotating shaft in a penetrating manner.

Preferably, the shaft further includes a bushing provided inside the stationary case along both sides of the lip seal so as to prevent the lip seal from being separated from the stationary case.

Preferably, the sealing member may be provided at a ridge portion of the fixed housing closely adhered to a lower portion of the valve housing for vacuum sealing.

As explained above, according to the present invention, there is provided a pendulum valve comprising: a fixing housing which makes a shaft combined with a valve for adjusting the gas amount tightly fixed to a valve housing through a seal ring; and a rotary shaft (inner shaft) coupled to the inside of the fixed housing, so that only the rotary shaft separated from the valve housing is rotated around the lip seal, thereby maintaining the sealing characteristics of the pendulum valve and preventing the discharge of unnecessary particles and hardened substances.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a plan view showing a pendulum valve according to the prior art.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the pendulum valve shown in fig. 1.

Fig. 3 and 4 are cross-sections for explaining the operation characteristics of a pendulum valve according to the related art.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view illustrating a pendulum valve according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view showing a shaft according to the present invention.

Fig. 7 and 8 are cross-sections for explaining the operation characteristics of the pendulum valve according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Description of the reference symbols

10: the valve housing 12: operation room

20: covers 130, 30: switch part

40: connecting pipe 50: pendulum valve

31. 131: valve 32: stepping motor

34: shaft of stepping motor 36: gear wheel

37: air passage 38, 134: shaft

132: the motor 132 a: shaft of motor

133: gear case 25: cylinder

39: seal ports 39a, 39 b: sealing ring

134 a: fixed case 134 b: lip seal

134 c: rotation shaft (inner shaft)134 d: first cover

134 e: second cover 134 f: bushing

134 g: sealing ring

Detailed Description

The advantages and features of the present invention, and methods for achieving the same, will be apparent with reference to the accompanying drawings and detailed description of the embodiments to be described later. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, and can be realized in a plurality of different forms.

In the present specification, the embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains. And the invention is defined only by the scope of the claims. Therefore, in the several embodiments, well-known constituent elements, operations, and techniques are not specifically described in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.

Note that, throughout the specification, the same reference numerals denote the same constituent elements. Also, the terms used (referred to) in the present specification are for the purpose of illustrating embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present invention. In this specification, the singular forms also include the plural forms if not specifically mentioned in the sentence. Furthermore, the constituent elements and operations referred to as "including (or having)" do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other constituent elements and operations.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Furthermore, terms defined in commonly used dictionaries are not intended to be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Hereinafter, the technical features of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, the pendulum valve described with reference to fig. 1 to 4 is used as a basis, and the description of the repetitive structure is replaced with the above description, and only the technical characteristic axis structure of the present invention will be specifically described.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view shown for explaining a pendulum valve according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 5, the pendulum valve according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a valve housing 10, a cover 20, and a switching part 130. In this case, the valve housing 10 and the cover 20 are the same as the pendulum valve 50 shown in fig. 1 to 4, and the switching portion 130 has a difference in composition.

The switching part 130 includes a valve 131 having a disk shape and a driving part that rotates the valve 131 and opens and closes the connection pipe 40. The drive section includes: a motor 132 that generates a driving force; a gear box 133 coupled to one end of the shaft 132a of the motor 132 and transmitting a driving force of the motor 132; a shaft (draft) 134 coupled to one end of the valve 131 rotates the valve 131 by a rotational force transmitted from the gear case 133, thereby opening and closing the connection pipe 40. At this time, the gear box 133 may include a pinion gear and a reduction gear.

As shown in fig. 5, the motor 132 is independently provided at the lower portion of the valve housing 10, and the shaft 134 is provided to penetrate the lower portion of the valve housing 10 and project into the operation chamber 12.

And, the shaft 134 receives the driving force of the motor 132 transmitted through the gear case 133 and rotates the valve 131. Accordingly, the air passage 37 is opened and closed.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view shown for explaining a shaft according to the present invention.

Referring to fig. 5 and 6, the shaft 134 according to the present invention is rotated by the driving force of the motor 132, and includes: a fixing case 134a penetrating the lower portion of the valve housing 10 and coupled and fixed thereto; a lip seal (lip seal)134b disposed inside the stationary shell 134 a.

The rotary shaft 134c is coupled to the inside of the lip seal 134b so as to penetrate the center of the lip seal 134 b. One end of the rotating shaft 134c is coupled to the gear case 133, and the other end is coupled to one end of the valve 131, and the valve 131 coupled to the upper end is rotated about the lip seal 134b by the driving force transmitted through the gear case 133.

As shown in fig. 6, a first cover 134d is screw-coupled to one side of the fixed housing 134a such that both side portions of the fixed housing 134a are sealed, the first cover 134d is coupled to one end portion of the rotating shaft 134c in a penetrating manner, and a second cover 134e is screw-coupled to the other end portion of the rotating shaft 134c in a penetrating manner.

Further, a bushing 134f may be provided along both sides of the lip seal 134b inside the fixing case 134 a. Such a bush 134f fixes the lip seal 134b and additionally seals the inside of the lip seal 134b so as to prevent the lip seal 134b from being detached from the inside to the outside of the fixed case 134 a.

A sealing ring 134g is provided in the weir portion d of the fixed case 134a for vacuum sealing.

The operational characteristics of the pendulum valve according to the embodiment of the present invention configured as above will be described.

Fig. 7 and 8 are cross-sections for explaining operation characteristics of the pendulum valve according to the embodiment of the present invention, in which fig. 7 shows a state where the connection pipe is open, and fig. 8 shows a state where the connection pipe is closed.

A process of opening the connection pipe will be described with reference to fig. 7.

As shown in fig. 7, if the motor 132 is operated and the shaft 132a of the motor 132 is rotated in one direction, the rotational force of the motor 132 is transmitted to the shaft 134 through the gear box 133. Then, the rotating shaft 134c of the shaft 134 receives the driving force of the motor 132 transmitted through the gear case 133 and rotates, and the lip seal 134b rotates inside the lip seal 134b formed inside the fixed case 134a with the lip seal 134b as an axis. Accordingly, the valve 131 coupled to the rotation shaft 134c rotates to open the air passage 37 formed in the valve housing 10, thereby allowing air to be introduced and discharged. At this time, the seal port 39 is moved upward by the cylinder 25 and is separated from the valve 131.

Referring to fig. 8, a process of closing the connection pipe will be explained.

As shown in fig. 8, if the motor 132 is caused to rotate in the opposite direction, the rotational force thereof is transmitted to the shaft 134 through the gear box 133. At this time, the rotation shaft 134c of the shaft 134 rotates in the direction opposite to the rotation direction of fig. 7 (when the connection pipe is opened), so that the valve 131 reversely rotates and the air passage 37 of the valve housing 10 is sealed, and then the sealing port 39 descends toward the air passage 37 by the cylinder 25 and the air passage 37 is more tightly sealed.

As described above, the technical idea of the present invention is specifically described in the preferred embodiments, but the preferred embodiments are described for illustration and not for limitation. Therefore, it is understood that various embodiments can be made by combining the embodiments of the present invention within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention if it is a general expert in the technical field.