Control Plate With Nested Orifice Ridges 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
A high-purity fluid control valve design featuring a moveable control plate with nested orifice ridges and flow-through passages, where the control plate has a continuous uninterrupted flat portion to bridge orifice segments, enhancing fluid sweep and providing large control gap length with small enclosed area, and incorporating softer materials like polymers for improved leak tightness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a conventional valve design is used, then the structure is simple, but the conductance is limited and dead space is large
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements nested orifice ridges where smaller orifice ridges are positioned within the boundaries of larger ones, creating multiple flow paths through different sized openings. This nesting arrangement maximizes the total conductance area while maintaining a compact valve structure, allowing fluid to flow through multiple concentric pathways simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The control plate is divided into multiple functional zones including flow-through passages, sealing surfaces, and orifice ridge structures. This segmentation allows each zone to perform its specific function optimally - flow-through passages conduct fluid, sealing surfaces provide leak-tight closure, and orifice ridges create controlled flow paths - while collectively achieving high conductance.
2Reliability
If the control plate seals against orifice ridges, then leak-tight shut-off is achieved, but internal dead space creates fluid stagnation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the sealing function from the traditional valve seat geometry and implements it through a flat sealing surface on the control plate that contacts the orifice ridges. This extracted sealing approach, combined with flow-through passages, eliminates enclosed dead spaces where fluid could stagnate while maintaining reliable leak-tight closure when the valve is in the closed position.
Solution Approach 2:
The flow-through passages maintain continuous fluid flow paths even when the valve is in the closed position, allowing fluid to sweep through the entire valve interior. This continuous flow action prevents fluid stagnation and maintains cleanliness in high-purity applications, while the same passages are blocked by the control plate when leak-tight shut-off is required.
3Reliability
If softer materials are used for the control plate, then leak tightness improves, but structural strength may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs composite construction where a metallic control plate body provides structural strength and rigidity, while softer sealing materials (such as polymer coatings or inserts) are applied to the sealing surfaces. This composite approach allows the hard metal substrate to maintain mechanical integrity and resist deformation, while the softer surface layer conforms to the orifice ridges to ensure leak-tight closure.
4Productivity
If nested orifice ridges are used, then conductance increases with small actuator movement, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple orifice ridges into a single integrated control plate structure rather than manufacturing them as separate components. This merging approach allows all orifice ridges to be machined or formed as one piece, eliminating alignment tolerances between multiple parts and simplifying manufacturing while maintaining the nested configuration that provides high conductance.
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.