EP0112492B1 - Alarm and control system for semiconductor manufacturing plants - Google Patents
Alarm and control system for semiconductor manufacturing plants Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- EP0112492B1 EP0112492B1 EP19830111572 EP83111572A EP0112492B1 EP 0112492 B1 EP0112492 B1 EP 0112492B1 EP 19830111572 EP19830111572 EP 19830111572 EP 83111572 A EP83111572 A EP 83111572A EP 0112492 B1 EP0112492 B1 EP 0112492B1
- Authority
- EP
- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- gas
- alarm
- detectors
- fire
- control system
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired - Lifetime
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-
- G—PHYSICS
- G08—SIGNALLING
- G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
- G08B17/00—Fire alarms; Alarms responsive to explosion
- G08B17/10—Actuation by presence of smoke or gases, e.g. automatic alarm devices for analysing flowing fluid materials by the use of optical means
- G08B17/117—Actuation by presence of smoke or gases, e.g. automatic alarm devices for analysing flowing fluid materials by the use of optical means by using a detection device for specific gases, e.g. combustion products, produced by the fire
Definitions
- An alarm and control system for semiconductor factories for protecting them against fire or gas leaks comprising a gas detector at locations where poisonous and inflammable treatment gases are used, an exhaust system and electrical devices, controlled by this detector, to raise the alarm, and a protection device.
- the present invention aims at providing an alarm and control system for semiconductor factories which can detect leaked treatment gas whether in the state of the gas itself or in the state of products of combustion as a result of combustion due to its reaction to oxygen in the air so that an appropriate control can be carried out either before the occurrence of or at the initial stages of fire.
- US-A-4,267,889 is not suitable for an alarm and control system for semiconductor factories since it uses infrared flame detectors and pressure rise detector devices which cannot detect the initial stages of fires of silane.
- an alarm and control system for protecting semiconductor factories against fire or gas leaks which is characterized in that gas detectors to detect the leakage of treatment gases including silane gas and optical smoke detectors to detect products of combustion of said treatment gases are provided at locations where said treatment gases, including silane gas, are used and that an electrical device to raise the alarm comprises circuitry means which, upon a change in the output stage of either of said gas detectors or said optical smoke detectors, causes an alarm signal to issue, and means responsive to said alarm signal connected to control the protection device as well as said manufacturing process of semiconductors are provided.
- the reference numeral 1 is a silane gas cylinder
- 2 is an ammonia gas cylinder
- 3 is a housing to house these cylinders
- 6 is a nitride film forming device (CVD) to form an insulating film on a semiconductor wafer by supplying silane and ammonia gases through pipes 4 and 5 respectively
- 8 is a scavenging device which forcedly oxidizes, namely to treat by combustion the unreacted silane gas discharged from the device 6 through a pipe 7 with oxygen being supplied
- 10 is a detection box provided between pipes 9 to monitor the state of the gas to be discharged to an exhaust duct 11 from the scavenging device 8
- 12 is a vacuum pump to make the CVD 6 vacuous
- 13 is an exhaust vent for the room air.
- the housing 3 and the detection box 10 are provided with gas detectors G i , G 2 , respectively, to detect the leakage of the treatment gases such as silane gas, etc. and fire detector 0, and D 2 , respectively, to detect the products of combustion from the burning of the gases.
- gas detectors G" G 2 although a photoelectric type gas detector in which the light scattered by the gas particles is detected can be used, a gas detector as disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No.
- 14380/1.980 is preferably utilized in the embodiment shown here which operates on the basis of such phenomena that when a metal oxide semiconductor which contains platinum black in the composition of stannic oxide known by the above patent as a detecting element for carbon monoxide, is aged in an atmosphere of silane gas it responds to low concentrations of silane gas of 0.2 to 0.5% and above.
- the ionization smoke detector (b) has a more effective than the photoelectric type smoke detector (a) in detecting the products of combustion of the silane gas, the former detecting the generation of the products of combustion earlier than the latter.
- the gas detector G 1 and the fire detector 0, provided in the housing 3 are connected to a first OR-circuit OR, and the gas detector G 2 and the fire detector O2 provided in the detection box 10 are connected directly and through an inverter I respectively to a second OR circuit OR 2 , the outputs of the OR,, and OR 2 being connected to a third OR-circuit, OR 3 , and the output of OR 3 is connected to a relay means which appropriately controls the manufacturing process of the semiconductor or a device for prevention of disasters such as a fire alarm or a fire extinguishing device.
- the nitride film forming device 6 has semiconductor wafers contained therein, and after it is made vacuous by the vacuum pump 12, the silane and ammonium gas cylinders 1 and 2 are opened to supply the silane and ammonia gases to the device 6, whereby nitride films necessary for the semiconductor wafers, i.e. insulating films are made to be generated thereon.
- the gases which contain the unreacted gases after the treatment are forcibly oxidized in the scavenging device 8 and discharged from the exhaust duct 11 through the pipe 9 as a safe gas.
- the gas detector G is operated to detect the gas itself. If a large amount of silane gas leaked from the silane gas cylinder 1, and the gas promptly reacts to the oxygen and burns, the fire detector D 1 is operated by the products of combustion through the OR-circuits, i.e. OR, and OR 3 so that a control means not shown is operated which controls a device for prevention of disasters such as a fire alarm, a fire extinguishing device or the manufacturing process.
- the burnt out products of combustion are discharged to the exhaust duct 11 through the pipe 9. Therefore, neither the gas detector G 2 nor the fire detector D 2 operate the OR-circuit OR 2 , because of operation of the inverter. Should the silane gas be discharged without being treated due to trouble in the scavenging device 8, either the gas detector G 2 directly or the fire detector D 2 through the operation of the inverter I operate the OR-circuit, OR 2 , so that a relay means not shown is operated which controls the manufacturing process or a device for prevention of disasters such as a fire alarm, a fire extinguishing device, or the like.
- the gas detector and the smoke detector are separately provided the two detectors may be integrally constituted and the circuit shown in Figure 2 may be incorporated with them.
- the present invention reveals such an effect as providing an alarm and control system for semiconductor factories or the like in which since at locations where poisonous and inflammable treatment gases are used such as in a semiconductor manufacturing process etc. gas detectors to detect leakage of the treatment gases themselves and fire detectors to detect the products of combustion resulting from combustion of the gases are provided so that either type of leakage of the gases can be dealt with, allowing an appropriate control before or at the early stages of fire breaking out.
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- Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
- Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
- Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- Emergency Management (AREA)
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Fire-Detection Mechanisms (AREA)
- Emergency Alarm Devices (AREA)
- Fire Alarms (AREA)
- Fire-Extinguishing By Fire Departments, And Fire-Extinguishing Equipment And Control Thereof (AREA)
- Investigating Or Analyzing Materials By The Use Of Fluid Adsorption Or Reactions (AREA)
Description
- An alarm and control system for semiconductor factories for protecting them against fire or gas leaks comprising a gas detector at locations where poisonous and inflammable treatment gases are used, an exhaust system and electrical devices, controlled by this detector, to raise the alarm, and a protection device.
- From GB-A-1,364,408 is known an installation for protecting an enclosed space against gas leaks, comprising a gas detector inside the enclosed space, and electrical devices, controlled by this detector, to raise the alarm, shut off the gas supply and switch on a ventilation system, and a self-contained emergency power supply.
- From US-A-4,267,889 is known a system for sensing and acting to suppress flame conditions as well as an explosion associated with a flame front in an enclosure which is susceptible to fire and explosion condition, such as trash shredders, grain elevators and enclosed areas where oxygen and combustible material may be present in the necessary proportions to feed a fire. In accordance with the special purpose of this system flame detectors of the available infrared sensor type and pressure rise detector devices are used to release a fire suppressing agent into the area to be protected.
- The known systems used for protecting enclosed spaces against gas leaks and to protect dust laden atmospheres, as for instance grain elevators or grinding or shredder chambers of mills, are not suitable to be used in an alarm and control system for semiconductor factories.
- In semiconductor factories for very large-scale integration (LSI) manufacturing processes which have recently been making rapid progress, at the time of applying an isolation film to a silicon wafer a silane gas is utilized, but such treatment gas is not only poisonous, but also dangerous since when the concentration of the gas becomes 2 to 5% or more it reacts to oxygen in the air to be ignited and burn. In fact, a fire has occurred in a certain LSI factory possibly caused by leakage of this gas and brought about enormous losses.
- In view of such situation the present invention aims at providing an alarm and control system for semiconductor factories which can detect leaked treatment gas whether in the state of the gas itself or in the state of products of combustion as a result of combustion due to its reaction to oxygen in the air so that an appropriate control can be carried out either before the occurrence of or at the initial stages of fire.
- The system of US-A-4,267,889 is not suitable for an alarm and control system for semiconductor factories since it uses infrared flame detectors and pressure rise detector devices which cannot detect the initial stages of fires of silane.
- In accordance with the present invention an alarm and control system for protecting semiconductor factories against fire or gas leaks is provided which is characterized in that gas detectors to detect the leakage of treatment gases including silane gas and optical smoke detectors to detect products of combustion of said treatment gases are provided at locations where said treatment gases, including silane gas, are used and that an electrical device to raise the alarm comprises circuitry means which, upon a change in the output stage of either of said gas detectors or said optical smoke detectors, causes an alarm signal to issue, and means responsive to said alarm signal connected to control the protection device as well as said manufacturing process of semiconductors are provided.
- The present invention will be explained below with reference to the attached drawings concerning its one embodiment as utilized in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) apparatus as well as associated apparatuses used at the time of applying an insulation film to a semiconductor wafer.
- Figure 1 is a schematical view of the embodiment of the present invention,
- Figure 2 is a circuit diagram of the embodiment according to Figure 1, and
- Figure 3 shows the characteristic curves of a photoelectric type smoke detector and an ionization type smoke detector.
- In Figure 1, the reference numeral 1 is a silane gas cylinder, 2 is an ammonia gas cylinder, 3 is a housing to house these cylinders, 6 is a nitride film forming device (CVD) to form an insulating film on a semiconductor wafer by supplying silane and ammonia gases through
pipes 4 and 5 respectively, 8 is a scavenging device which forcedly oxidizes, namely to treat by combustion the unreacted silane gas discharged from thedevice 6 through apipe 7 with oxygen being supplied, 10 is a detection box provided betweenpipes 9 to monitor the state of the gas to be discharged to anexhaust duct 11 from thescavenging device CVD 6 vacuous, and 13 is an exhaust vent for the room air. Thehousing 3 and thedetection box 10 are provided with gas detectors Gi, G2, respectively, to detect the leakage of the treatment gases such as silane gas, etc. and fire detector 0, and D2, respectively, to detect the products of combustion from the burning of the gases. As the gas detectors G" G2, although a photoelectric type gas detector in which the light scattered by the gas particles is detected can be used, a gas detector as disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 14380/1.980 is preferably utilized in the embodiment shown here which operates on the basis of such phenomena that when a metal oxide semiconductor which contains platinum black in the composition of stannic oxide known by the above patent as a detecting element for carbon monoxide, is aged in an atmosphere of silane gas it responds to low concentrations of silane gas of 0.2 to 0.5% and above. As the fire detector to detect the products of combustion even though a photoelectric or ionization type smoke detector can be utilized, judging from the characterizing curves shown in Figure 3 wherein the outputs of these detectors and the concentration of the combustion products of the silane gas are illustrated as the ordinate and the abscissa, respectively, the ionization smoke detector (b) has a more effective than the photoelectric type smoke detector (a) in detecting the products of combustion of the silane gas, the former detecting the generation of the products of combustion earlier than the latter. As shown in Figure 2, among the gas and fire detectors Gi, G2 and Di, D2, the gas detector G1 and the fire detector 0, provided in thehousing 3 are connected to a first OR-circuit OR,, and the gas detector G2 and the fire detector O2 provided in thedetection box 10 are connected directly and through an inverter I respectively to a second OR circuit OR2, the outputs of the OR,, and OR2 being connected to a third OR-circuit, OR3, and the output of OR3 is connected to a relay means which appropriately controls the manufacturing process of the semiconductor or a device for prevention of disasters such as a fire alarm or a fire extinguishing device. - Operation of the apparatus described above is as follows.
- The nitride
film forming device 6 has semiconductor wafers contained therein, and after it is made vacuous by thevacuum pump 12, the silane andammonium gas cylinders 1 and 2 are opened to supply the silane and ammonia gases to thedevice 6, whereby nitride films necessary for the semiconductor wafers, i.e. insulating films are made to be generated thereon. The gases which contain the unreacted gases after the treatment are forcibly oxidized in thescavenging device 8 and discharged from theexhaust duct 11 through thepipe 9 as a safe gas. - In this state, should silane gas leak from the silane gas cylinder 1 in an amount that is of a degree insufficient to react to oxygen in the air and to burn, the gas detector G, is operated to detect the gas itself. If a large amount of silane gas leaked from the silane gas cylinder 1, and the gas promptly reacts to the oxygen and burns, the fire detector D1 is operated by the products of combustion through the OR-circuits, i.e. OR, and OR3 so that a control means not shown is operated which controls a device for prevention of disasters such as a fire alarm, a fire extinguishing device or the manufacturing process. As to the
detection box 10, during normal operation of thescavenging device 8, the burnt out products of combustion are discharged to theexhaust duct 11 through thepipe 9. Therefore, neither the gas detector G2 nor the fire detector D2 operate the OR-circuit OR2, because of operation of the inverter. Should the silane gas be discharged without being treated due to trouble in thescavenging device 8, either the gas detector G2 directly or the fire detector D2 through the operation of the inverter I operate the OR-circuit, OR2, so that a relay means not shown is operated which controls the manufacturing process or a device for prevention of disasters such as a fire alarm, a fire extinguishing device, or the like. - Although in the above embodiment the gas detector and the smoke detector are separately provided the two detectors may be integrally constituted and the circuit shown in Figure 2 may be incorporated with them.
- As stated above, the present invention reveals such an effect as providing an alarm and control system for semiconductor factories or the like in which since at locations where poisonous and inflammable treatment gases are used such as in a semiconductor manufacturing process etc. gas detectors to detect leakage of the treatment gases themselves and fire detectors to detect the products of combustion resulting from combustion of the gases are provided so that either type of leakage of the gases can be dealt with, allowing an appropriate control before or at the early stages of fire breaking out.
Claims (5)
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
JP20688882A JPS5998293A (en) | 1982-11-27 | 1982-11-27 | Alarm and controller for semiconductor plant or the like |
JP206888/82 | 1982-11-27 |
Publications (3)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
EP0112492A2 EP0112492A2 (en) | 1984-07-04 |
EP0112492A3 EP0112492A3 (en) | 1987-08-26 |
EP0112492B1 true EP0112492B1 (en) | 1990-01-10 |
Family
ID=16530706
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
EP19830111572 Expired - Lifetime EP0112492B1 (en) | 1982-11-27 | 1983-11-19 | Alarm and control system for semiconductor manufacturing plants |
Country Status (4)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP0112492B1 (en) |
JP (1) | JPS5998293A (en) |
DE (1) | DE3381099D1 (en) |
ES (1) | ES527814A0 (en) |
Families Citing this family (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
KR910000246Y1 (en) * | 1984-07-11 | 1991-01-18 | 히로시 세끼 | Composite fire sensor |
JP2539067B2 (en) * | 1990-02-20 | 1996-10-02 | 富士通株式会社 | Low pressure vapor phase growth equipment |
WO2005091238A2 (en) * | 2004-03-23 | 2005-09-29 | Du Plessis Jacobus Petrus Fran | Fire preventing or extinguishing system for an appliance |
US20140358300A1 (en) * | 2013-03-15 | 2014-12-04 | Macronix International Co., Ltd. | Portable Control System for Cylinder Cabinet |
Family Cites Families (10)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
JPS54639B2 (en) * | 1971-08-10 | 1979-01-12 | ||
FR2180423B3 (en) * | 1972-04-17 | 1975-06-20 | Securitex Sarl | |
FR2226813A5 (en) * | 1973-04-04 | 1974-11-15 | Cifal | Inflammable product fire prevention system - has IR radiation detector injecting cooling fluid and operating alarm |
US3955186A (en) * | 1974-05-17 | 1976-05-04 | Compugraphic Corporation | Character image generation apparatus and CRT phototypesetting system |
JPS5323195A (en) * | 1976-08-16 | 1978-03-03 | Otsuka Kagaku Yakuhin | Method of treating flame resistance for inflammable organic material and flame resisting composition |
US4069018A (en) * | 1976-09-28 | 1978-01-17 | Weyerhaeuser Company | Explosive gas monitoring method and apparatus |
US4219806A (en) * | 1978-09-15 | 1980-08-26 | American District Telegraph Company | Dual alarm gas detector |
US4267889A (en) * | 1978-12-27 | 1981-05-19 | Williams Robert M | Explosion suppression system for fire or explosion susceptible enclosure |
US4369647A (en) * | 1980-03-21 | 1983-01-25 | New Cosmos Electric Company Limited | Gas leakage detector |
NL8003068A (en) * | 1980-05-28 | 1982-01-04 | Naarden & Shell Aroma Chem | PERFUME COMPOSITIONS AND PERFUMED MATERIALS AND ARTICLES CONTAINING ESTERS OF BICYCLIC MONOTERPEENIC ACIDS AS RAW MATERIAL. |
-
1982
- 1982-11-27 JP JP20688882A patent/JPS5998293A/en active Pending
-
1983
- 1983-11-19 EP EP19830111572 patent/EP0112492B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1983-11-19 DE DE8383111572T patent/DE3381099D1/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
- 1983-11-25 ES ES527814A patent/ES527814A0/en active Granted
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
ES8505125A1 (en) | 1985-04-16 |
JPS5998293A (en) | 1984-06-06 |
EP0112492A2 (en) | 1984-07-04 |
ES527814A0 (en) | 1985-04-16 |
DE3381099D1 (en) | 1990-02-15 |
EP0112492A3 (en) | 1987-08-26 |
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