System for controlling a flow of gas into an abatement device

Abstract

This invention provides a system for controlling a gas flow entering an emission reduction device. The system includes: at least one vacuum pump configured to extract process gas from a process tool; an interface controller; a flow measurement device disposed downstream of the at least one vacuum pump and configured to measure the flow rate of the process gas flow and send a flow rate signal to the interface controller; an emission reduction device disposed downstream of the flow measurement device; and an automatically regulating gas injection block disposed upstream of the emission reduction device and configured to inject one or more gases into the process gas flow. During use, the process tool is configured to send a signal to the interface controller indicating a process step occurring within the tool, and the interface controller is configured to send a process step signal to the automatically regulating gas injection block to control the injection of the one or more gases according to the process step occurring within the tool. The interface controller is configured to send a flow rate signal to the automatically regulating gas injection block to control the injection of the one or more gases according to the gas flow rate measured by the flow measurement device. This invention also provides a method for controlling a gas flow entering an emission reduction device.

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