Liquid chemical supply system

Abstract

A liquid chemical supply system includes a liquid chemical pump having a pump chamber for supplying a liquid chemical and a volume variation member that will vary the volume of the pump chamber, and will intake or discharge the liquid chemical based upon a change in the volume of the pump chamber in accordance with the volume variation member. The system also comprises an operation means for causing the volume variation member to operate, an operation amount detection means for detecting the operation amount of the volume variation member, a displacement control means for performing displacement control so that the volume variation member will be displaced by the operation means when liquid chemical ports that lead to the pump chamber are in the closed state, and a determination means for determining the presence or absence of gas inside the pump chamber based upon the operation amount detection results from the operation amount detection means during displacement control.

Description

[0001]The present application claims priority based on Japan Patent Application No. 2006-018504 filed on Jan. 27, 2006, and the entire contents of that application is incorporated by reference in this specification.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a liquid chemical supply system that employs a liquid chemical pump in order to perform intake and discharge of a liquid chemical, and also relates to a liquid chemical supply system that is suitable for a semiconductor manufacturing device which uses a liquid chemical in order to, for example, apply to a semiconductor.BACKGROUND ART[0003]A liquid chemical pump is provided with a semiconductor manufacturing device in order to apply a predetermined quantity of liquid chemical to a semiconductor wafer. One of the liquid chemical pumps is designed such that a pump chamber in which liquid chemical is stored and a pressure application chamber that introduces compressed air are separated by a separation member such as...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]An object of the present teaching is primarily to provide a liquid chemical supply system that can accurately detect the presence of gas inside a pump chamber of a liquid chemical pump, and can optimally perform discharge supply of liquid chemical by means of a liquid chemical pump.

[0035]According to this construction, the volume change operation of the pump chamber by the volume variation member will be performed promptly during liquid chemical intake. Because of that, during the surplus time period after liquid chemical intake (the time remaining until the next liquid chemical intake), the presence or absence of gas inside the pump chamber can be determined. At this point, there will be a correlation between speed of the change in the volume of the pump chamber and the liquid chemical flow rate during liquid chemical intake or liquid chemical discharge. The liquid chemical flow rate during liquid chemical intake may have a comparatively rough accuracy, but in contrast, the liquid chemical flow rate during liquid chemical discharge must be controlled with a high degree of accuracy. In this respect, a construction in which the volume change operation of the pump chamber during liquid chemical intake is quicker than during liquid chemical discharge, can be more suitable for controlling the liquid chemical flow rate with a high degree of accuracy during liquid chemical discharge, when compared to the opposite construction (a construction in which the volume change operation of the pump chamber during liquid chemical discharge is quicker than during liquid chemical intake).

Problems solved by technology

However, if it is not confirmed whether or not the air has been completely removed therefrom before the liquid chemical pump is used with air remaining inside the pump chamber, liquid chemical may no longer be able to be discharged as intended.

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