Fluid delivery system

Abstract

The invention provides a fluid delivery system, including a mounting structure, a plurality of rows of locator alignment components secured to the mounting structure, a plurality of rows of fluid connecting pieces, each having inlet and outlet ports and a fluid communication passage interconnecting the ports, the fluid connecting pieces being arranged in pairs, each pair including two of the fluid connecting pieces located next to one another in a respective row of fluid connecting components, the fluid connecting pieces of each pair being releasably held by and aligned relative to one another by a respective one of the locator alignment components, and a plurality of manifold pieces extending transverse to the rows of fluid connecting pieces, at least one manifold piece having a manifold passage with a center line crossing over a center line interconnecting the farthest ports of one of the pairs and being removable without removing the locator alignment component by which the respective pair is held from the mounting structure.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present patent application claims priority from provisional patent application No. 60 / 458,115, filed on Mar. 26, 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1). Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates to a fluid delivery system, or fluid delivery system, of the kind that may include interconnected fluid control components such as valves, regulators, mass flow controllers, filters, and pressure transducers. [0004] 2). Discussion of Related Art [0005] Fluid delivery systems, also known as fluid delivery systems, are used in, for example, semiconductor processing systems to provide predetermined gases or mixtures of gases at predetermined flow rates and predetermined pressures into a processing chamber. Various supply gases are connected to inlets of such a manifold, and one or more outlets of the manifold are connected to the processing chamber. Such a manifold system...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011] The locator alignment components may, for example, be cradles. Each cradle may prevent movement of the fluid connecting pieces of a respective pair in x, y, and θ.

Problems solved by technology

It has been found that maintenance to such systems is usually extremely cumbersome because the replacement of a single piece may require disassembly and reassembly of a large number of pieces, and usually involves the breaking of a large number of seals that are expensive to replace.

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