Control Plate With Flow-Through Passages For High Conductance Valves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fluid control valves face challenges in achieving high conductance while maintaining leak-tight shut-off and proportional control, especially in applications requiring high purity and fast acting performance, such as semiconductor manufacturing.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a moveable control plate with nested orifice ridges and flow-through passages, allowing fluid to pass through the control plate, which enhances internal valve volume sweep and provides large control gap length with small enclosed area, using materials like polymers molded into metallic control plates for enhanced leak tightness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If a traditional valve design is used, then the structure is simple, but the conductance is limited and internal dead space causes fluid stagnation
Solution Approach 1:
The control plate is divided into multiple segments with flow-through passages, allowing fluid to pass through the control plate itself rather than around it. This segmentation increases the effective flow area and conductance while eliminating dead space where fluid could stagnate.
Solution Approach 2:
The valve employs nested orifice ridges where smaller orifice structures are positioned within larger valve chambers. This nesting arrangement maximizes the control gap length relative to the enclosed volume, providing high conductance with minimal dead space.
2Quantity of substance
If the control gap length is increased to improve conductance, then the flow capacity increases, but the enclosed area and dead space increase proportionally
Solution Approach 1:
The flow-through passages are strategically positioned in specific locations on the control plate to optimize fluid sweep of the valve interior. This localized approach ensures that high-velocity flow occurs precisely where needed to clear dead space, rather than uniformly distributing flow throughout the entire valve volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The design transitions from traditional radial flow patterns to a more complex three-dimensional flow path that passes through the control plate thickness. This dimensional change allows the fluid to access previously unreachable areas of the valve interior, increasing effective conductance without proportionally increasing enclosed volume.
3Reliability
If softer materials are used at the seat interface to improve leak tightness, then the shut-off performance improves, but the control plate manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control plate combines a rigid metallic base structure with integrated softer polymer or elastomeric materials at the seat interface. This composite construction maintains the structural integrity and positioning accuracy of metal while providing enhanced sealing capability through the softer material that conforms to the orifice ridge surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing material is merged directly into the control plate structure rather than being a separate component. This integration eliminates additional assembly steps and ensures precise positioning of the sealing surface relative to the flow-through passages and control plate geometry.
Data Source
AI summary
A high purity fluid control valve includes a moveable control plate having a flow-through passage to enhance fluid sweep of the internal valve volume. The valve is of jet and seat type using nested orifice ridges to achieve high conductance with small actuator movement. Enhanced leak tightness in the valve shut-off condition may additionally be provided by selectively incorporating into the control plate materials softer than the material comprising the orifice ridge. The control plate is especially useful in high conductance, fast acting, and proportional control applications such as gas delivery in semiconductor manufacturing.