JPH06206015A - Fluid dispersion element - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a fluid dispersion element through which a fluid such as a high purity gas can pass over a wide range and in uniformly dispersed condition. CONSTITUTION:The fluid dispersion element 1 is a one wherein a housing 2 having an inlet 4 for a fluid and an outlet 5 communicated with the inlet 4 and being expanded and a porous sintered member 3 covering the outlet s or the housing 2 are provided and the porous sintered member 3 consists of a substrate layer 3A with a large pore diameter and a fine particle layer 3B jointed with at least one face side thereof and with a smaller pore diameter than that of the substrate layer 3A and the thickness of the fine particle layer 3B is thinner than that of the substrate layer 3A.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fluid dispersion element capable of uniformly distributing and flowing a fluid such as a high-purity gas for semiconductor production.

[0002]

^2. Description of the Related Art A fluid, for example, a gas body for semiconductor production is usually housed in a high-pressure cylinder having an internal pressure of about 150 kgf / cm ² and is stably supplied to a target location by utilizing this high pressure. A pressure reducing valve for reducing the pressure is interposed depending on the purpose of use.

On the other hand, in order to improve the performance and quality of electronic parts such as semiconductors, it is often necessary to maintain them in an ultra-high vacuum state and then inject a process gas for processing. In such a case, For example, batch processing is performed by using a chamber whose atmosphere can be adjusted.

In such a chamber, as shown in FIG. 6, a chamber body A1 is provided with an exhaust pipe A2 and an air supply pipe A3 via a valve A4, and
The object A5 to be processed is moved to the lower side of the chamber main body A1, then pushed up, carried into the chamber A1, subjected to, for example, an etching process, and then taken out.

The chamber main body A1 has an airtight shutter for letting in and out the object A5 to be processed.
The atmosphere inside is adjusted by using the pipes A2, A3 and the valve A4.

Conventionally, in such an apparatus, the piping for supplying the processing gas into the chamber A1 has not been studied so much, and a vent valve capable of fluid control is provided. The diameter tube is opened as it is.

[0007]

However, in such a structure, for example, the reducing gas is supplied to the evacuated high-vacuum chamber body A1 to supply the reducing gas to the normal pressure, which is a pipe A for supplying air.
Since 3 is connected to the chamber A1 as it is, a high-pressure fluid, that is, for example, a reducing gas instantaneously flows, resulting in a non-uniform flow, which causes characteristic changes and variations of the product A5 to be processed. The impure foreign matter existing in the chamber A1 is blown up to adhere to the surface of the article to be processed, which causes a trouble.

In particular, when the product to be processed is, for example, a semiconductor wafer, the circuit wiring interval is very small, such as several microns or less, so that the cleanliness of the atmosphere is required to be extremely high. It is also necessary to prevent the blowing up of air.

As a method for solving such a problem,
For example, it has been attempted to increase the number of pipes for air supply and to let them flow in at a relatively low pressure, and to arrange a cushioning material such as a powder sintered body at the outlet of the pipe, but the former method In addition to being complicated and incurring higher equipment costs, it also causes a leak. Also, the latter uses a relatively large powder and coarse pores, so there are many variations between pores, and there is a wide range. It is difficult to evenly distribute the flow over.

The present invention has been completed as a result of research in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a fluid dispersion element capable of obtaining a uniform dispersed flow.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a housing having a fluid inlet and an outlet leading to the inlet and enlarged, and a porous sintered member covering the outlet of the housing. The porous sintered member is composed of a support layer having a large pore size, and a combination of at least one surface of the support layer and a fine layer of fine particles having a pore size smaller than that of the support layer, and the thickness of the fine layer. The fluid dispersion element has a thickness smaller than that of the support layer.

[0012]

As described above, in the fluid dispersion element of the present invention, the enlarged lead-out port is provided with the porous sintered member, and the member has a supporting layer having a relatively large pore diameter and a fine and thickness. By using a composite product with a thin fine layer, the strength and flow rate characteristics can be improved and the total thickness can be reduced.

Moreover, the adoption of such a member is
Unlike the case where only the perforated plate is arranged, the uniformity of the dispersed flow can be greatly improved because the introduction pressure starts to flow when reaching the predetermined pressure.

[0014]

1 is a partial sectional view showing an example of a fluid dispersion element (hereinafter referred to as an element) of the present invention, in which the element 1 is a porous sintered member arranged so as to cover a lead-out port 5 of a housing 2. 3 is integrated by the pressing tool 10, and in this example, the fluid becomes a uniform flow by the porous sintered member 3 and flows out in the direction of the arrow.

In this case, the housing 2 has a flange portion 2B integrally formed with the tubular portion 2A, and has an inlet port 4 on one end side of the tubular portion 2A and an outlet port 5 provided on the flange portion 2B side. The channels 6 communicate with each other. Further, on the outlet 5 side, an opening 7 formed of a cone surface that expands outward is provided, and is manufactured by, for example, machining.

Further, another pipe (not shown) is provided in the cylindrical portion 2A.
A threaded portion 9A for connecting with and a wrench holding portion 9B are provided on the outer periphery, and a ring-shaped convex strip 9C for holding the connection airtightness is provided on the end surface thereof.

In such a housing, the flow path 6 has, for example, an inlet 4 having an inner diameter of 2 to 20 mm and an inlet port of 20 to 500 mm.
Although the outlet port 5 is enlarged to some extent, these respective sizes and shapes can be arbitrarily selected within the above-mentioned range and outside as required.
Further, the shape of the outlet port 5 can be freely set to a circular shape or a rectangular shape.

Further, as shown in the enlarged view of FIG. 2, for example, the tip of the collar portion 2B is formed by notching the outer peripheral surface 12 in a substantially concentric manner, so that the mating surface 16 indicated by a step and the outer spigot surface 17 having a reduced diameter, Also, a protruding first pressing portion 19 for pressing the outer peripheral edge of the porous sintered member 3 is provided around the periphery.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the pusher 10 has an outer peripheral surface 22 having substantially the same diameter as the outer peripheral surface 12 of the housing 2 as shown in FIG.
And a stepped ring body around which an inner peripheral edge 10B extending inward is provided.

Since the pusher 10 is configured to be fitted along the outer spigot surface 17 and the mating surface 16 formed on the outer peripheral surface of the collar portion 2B of the housing 2, the pusher 10 also has an inner spigot surface 27. While forming the other mating surface 26, an inner peripheral edge 10B having a second pressing portion 29 for pressing the porous sintered member 3 and the like is formed below the inner spigot surface 27.

In the example of FIG. 2, the inner peripheral edge 10B is the second
The pressing portion 29 is formed by forming a surface perpendicular to the axis, and the porous sintered member 3 is sandwiched between the pressing portion 29 and the first pressing portion 19 formed in the housing 2. Has been done. Further, in the figure, an example is shown in which a holding portion 10C for holding the support plate 11 for backing up the porous sintered member 3 is formed further downstream thereof.

Next, the porous sintered member 3 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the porous sintered member 3 used in the present invention is integrally bonded to one side (in this example, the outflow side) of the support layer 3A having a large pore diameter and a relatively large thickness. It is made of a composite sintered body of the fine particles and the fine layer 3B, and an intermediate layer may be interposed between them when necessary.

In this case, the fine layer 3B is an important part that substantially determines the flow rate characteristics of the porous sintered member,
While it is necessary to distribute fine voids uniformly,
Increasing the thickness more than necessary has disadvantages such as increasing flow-through resistance. Therefore, in the present invention, by combining with the support layer 3A, strength and flow rate characteristics are satisfied, and at the same time, the fine layer 3B is provided. Is thinner than the thickness of the support layer 3A to reduce the overall thickness.

The specific structure of the porous sintered member 3 is set in consideration of the application, shape, size, etc.
For example, as a gas flow used in a semiconductor manufacturing process, for example, when the supply pressure is about 10 kgf / cm2 or less, the supporting layer 3A has a fiber diameter of 4 to 20.
A metal fiber sintered body having a thickness of about 0.2 to 1 mm, preferably about 0.3 to 0.5 mm, or a metal obtained by sintering a metal powder having a relatively large particle diameter, of a metal long fiber of about μm. It can be used as a simple substance such as a powder sintered body or in a multi-layer structure in which they are laminated. In particular, the fiber sintered body is suitable because it has the advantage of being slightly elastic and capable of improving the sealing property.

The fine layer 3B to be composited with the support layer 3A is made of, for example, short metal fibers having a fiber diameter of 3 μm or less and an aspect ratio of about 2 to 50, and fine particles such as fine metal particles. , The pore diameter is 10 μm or less,
It is possible to use those configured so as to be preferably 5 μm or less, more preferably 2 μm or less. However, the present invention is not particularly limited to such high precision, and a relatively roughened one can be adopted, and the fine layer 3B can be used.
The thickness is about 0.05 to 0.5 mm.

The present applicant has already proposed such a composite member as Japanese Patent Application No. 3-289087. Specifically, for example, fine particles are suspended in a support body which is previously sintered and molded with predetermined characteristics. This is a method in which a fine layer is formed by a method such as suction of the liquid thus obtained, and then both are sintered and integrated. As the metal used, it is necessary to consider the corrosion resistance and strength depending on the type of fluid such as stainless steel, Ni, Hastelloy, and silver.

The element of FIG. 2 is oriented so that the fine layer 3B of the porous sintered member 3 thus constructed is on the outflow side, and the first pressing portion 19 and the pressing tool 10 formed on the housing 2 are arranged. The second pressing portion 29 is formed between the second pressing portion 29 and the second pressing portion 29 formed on the upper surface of the fine layer 3B.

By doing so, the occurrence of defects such as deformation and cracks on the fine layer 3B side due to pressing is reduced.

It is of course possible to orient the fine layer 3B on the inflow side opposite to the above, but in this case, the pressing portion width is also changed accordingly.

Further, in this example, the support plate 11 arranged on the downstream side of the porous sintered member 3 protects the surface of the porous sintered member 3 and has a backup function. For example, a punching plate or a screen can be used.

In the element 1, the porous sintered member 3 is thus sandwiched between the housing 2 and the pressing tool 10, the spigot surfaces 17 and 27 are fitted to each other, and the elements are strongly pressed at a predetermined pressure, for example, by welding or the like. It is integrated by methods such as press fitting and screwing.

In this example, the case where they are integrated by welding is shown, and it is determined in advance that the porous sintered member 3 should be attached so as to prevent leakage from occurring.
By setting it as a position where 6 and the other mating surface 26 provided on the pressing tool 10 come into contact with each other, the production efficiency can be improved. After being fitted to a predetermined depth in this way, the melted portion M is formed by welding along the mating portions 16 and 26.

In this case, it is preferable that the melted portion M has a depth that does not reach the porous sintered member 3, and the heat shrinkage accompanying cooling of the melted portion M causes the melted portion M to be provided in the housing 2 and the pressing tool 10. The sealing property of the porous sintered member 3 is further improved by further narrowing the gap between the pressing portions 19 and 29.

By such treatment, the supporting layer 3A
At the edge portion, a dense portion having a reduced thickness is formed by the pressing portion 19 or 29, but it can be seen that the degree of deformation on the support layer 3A side is larger than that on the fine layer 3B.

Further, according to this method, since the melted portion M does not reach the porous sintered member 3, it is a finely sintered member having a pore diameter of 5 μm or less and has a heat shrinkage ratio of 5 μm or less. Prevents cracking even for large objects,
Productivity can be improved.

Further, as a method of more positively utilizing the heat generated at this time, a diffusion phenomenon not accompanied by melting is generated at the bonding interface with the porous sintered member 3, and the bonding is performed by diffusion bonding. Is also possible, and this method is also characterized in that the sealing property and the bonding property can be improved. This diffusion fixing method is proposed by Japanese Patent Application No. 4-148174. Further, as another example of the element 1,
This is illustrated by FIGS.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which a packing member 13 made of a metal O-ring is interposed between the porous sintered member 3 and the pressing portion 19, and the packing member 13 is flattened by the pressing to the outside. And the joint gap A between the housing 2 and the pressing tool 10 is blocked.

FIG. 4 shows an example in which the inlet 4 is provided laterally and the entire element 1 is formed into a donut shape.

Providing the inlet 4 in the side mold in this way can reduce the upper space for mounting, and can further expand its application range by forming a donut type element or the like.

What has been described so far is merely an example of the present invention, and the scope of rights is not limited thereby. Therefore, shapes and dimensions other than those described, or combinations of respective members may be similarly implemented without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0041]

[Specific example] Inner diameter of inlet is 4.35mm, outlet diameter is 8
A housing similar to that shown in FIG. 1 having a thickness of 0 mm is equipped with a porous sintered member having a thickness of 0.6 mm.

As the constitution of the porous sintered member, the supporting layer 3A is made of stainless steel fiber having a fiber diameter of 4 μm and the thickness is 0.4.
The stainless steel short fiber having a fiber diameter of 1 μm and an average aspect ratio of 10 is formed as a fine layer 3B on one surface formed by sintering to a thickness of 0.2 mm, which is sintered and integrated in a composite structure having a layer having a thickness of 0.2 mm. .

Then, such a porous sintered member 3 is shown in FIG.
It was sandwiched between the housing and the pressing tool in the same direction as above, and the mating surface was welded to the outer periphery, and as a result, a molten portion which did not reach the sintered member 3 was formed.

It was found that the obtained element had no cracks in the porous sintered member and had a reliable sealing property.

Next, the flow characteristics of the element obtained here were evaluated. Measurements by hot wire anemometer, sending a N2 gas at a pressure 0.2~0.5kgf / cm ² range from inlet to measure the flow distribution emitted from the porous sintered member in each pressure.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, it was confirmed that a uniform flow was obtained from almost the entire surface at any pressure. Next, add 10kg / cm ² to this element.
A pressure resistance test was performed by applying the above pressure, but no leakage occurred from the porous sintered member and its mounting portion.

[0047]

As described above, in the fluid dispersion element of the present invention, by adopting the porous member having the composite structure, the uniform flow distribution can be obtained while maintaining the strength, and the gas for manufacturing the electronic parts etc. can be obtained. It can be used particularly suitably for dispersion.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view showing a main part thereof.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing another embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing another embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow rate distribution state of test results.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a chamber.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Fluid Dispersion Element 2 Housing 3 Porous Sintered Member 3A Support Layer 3B Fine Layer 4 Inlet 5 Outlet 10 Pusher

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A housing having a fluid inlet and a lead-out opening communicating with the inlet and enlarged, and a porous sintered member covering the outlet of the housing, the porous sintered member comprising: A support layer having a large pore size and a combination of at least one surface of the support and a fine layer of fine particles having a pore size smaller than that of the support layer, and having a thickness smaller than that of the support layer. Fluid dispersion element. 2. The fluid dispersion element according to claim 1, wherein the fine layer has a thickness of 0.5 mm or less. 3. The porous sintered member is attached so as to cover the lead-out port between the housing and a pusher attached to the lead-out port.
A fluid dispersion element as described. 4. The pressing tool is integrally fitted by welding, in which the porous sintered member is interposed, the spigot is fitted in the housing, and the outer peripheral surface forms a fusion zone along the mating surface of the housing and the pressing tool. 4. The structure according to claim 3, wherein the melted portion is sandwiched by the melted portion having a depth that does not reach the porous sintered member and thermal contraction during cooling of the melted portion. Fluid dispersion element. 5. The pressing tool is integrally fitted by welding in which the porous sintered member is interposed and the spigot is fitted to the housing, and the outer peripheral surface forms a fusion zone along the mating surface of the housing and the pressing tool. The fused portion is made to have a depth that does not reach the porous sintered member, and the porous sintered member is diffused at the fusion interface between the housing and the pressing tool due to the welding heat of the fused portion. The fluid distribution plate element according to claim 3, wherein the fluid distribution plate element is attached by coupling.