JPH0319456B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a clean unit expansion method for expanding the clean zone of a clean unit that maintains a high level of air cleanliness in a space housing production equipment and the like.

<Prior Art> Conventionally, equipment for producing semiconductors and the like must be installed in a high cleanliness space, which has a higher air cleanliness than the work passage area, in a clean space room. For this reason, a conventional clean unit that forms a tunnel-type high-cleanliness space is shown in FIG. 3. The clean units 1, 1 are installed on the ceiling surface 2a of the clean space chamber 2, respectively, facing each other on the left and right with a working passage area 3 in the approximate center of the clean space chamber 2 in between. And the above clean unit 1
A high-cleanliness space 6 is formed in the shape of a tunnel below the high-performance filter 5, and the production equipment 7 is housed in this high-cleanliness space 6, so that the high-cleanliness space 6 is directed from the high-performance filter 5 to the lower high-cleanliness space 6. clean air is blown out to maintain the high cleanliness space 6 at a higher air cleanliness than the working passage area 3.

However, with the conventional clean unit mentioned above,
Once installed in a predetermined position, the horizontal width dimension of the high cleanliness space 6 is fixed, so when changing the production process of semiconductors or increasing the size of the production equipment 7, the production When the device 7 becomes larger in the width direction, the production device 7 housed in the high cleanliness space 6 protrudes from the high cleanliness space 6,
This causes the problem that the entire atmosphere of the production equipment 7 cannot be maintained at a high level of air cleanliness because it protrudes into the working passage area 3 where the air cleanliness is low.

Additionally, depending on the change in the production process or the increase in the size of the production equipment 7, it may be possible to use a clean unit 1 of a corresponding size, but in this case, it would be necessary to replace the clean unit 1 each time. As a result, there is a problem in that replacement work requires time and money.

<Objective of the invention> Therefore, an object of the present invention is to easily and inexpensively expand a high-cleanliness space to a size that corresponds to the size of the production equipment when the production process is changed or the production equipment is enlarged. can always be stored in a highly clean space,
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for expanding a clean unit that can maintain a high level of air cleanliness in the atmosphere of production equipment.

<Structure of the Invention> In order to achieve the above object, the clean unit expansion method of the present invention provides a tunnel-like high cleanliness system having an air cleanliness higher than that of the work passage area in a clean space room. A clean unit expansion method for expanding a clean unit that blows clean air downward from a high-performance filter to form a space, wherein the clean unit faces a working passage area of the space above the high-performance filter of the clean unit. A connection port is provided at the front end, an extension unit is provided on the working passage area side of the clean unit, and the space above the high performance filter of the extension unit is connected to the space above the high performance filter of the clean unit through the connection port. It is characterized by an expanded high-cleanliness space.

<Example> FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a clean unit after expansion, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a clean unit before expansion. In Figure 2, 10 is a clean space chamber, 1
Reference numeral 1 indicates a working passage area located approximately in the center of the clean space chamber 10, and 12 indicates a pair of clean units installed on the ceiling surface 10a of the clean space chamber 10, facing each other from side to side across the working passage area 11. This is the clean unit on the right side of my house. The working passage area 11 and the pair of clean units 12, 12, which are exactly the same, are arranged in many rows in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper, with the plane shown by the dashed line A in FIG. 2 being a plane of symmetry. Also, 1
A filter unit 4 is installed on the back side of the ceiling surface 10a of the clean space room 10 and cleans the air from an air conditioner (not shown) and sends it to the working passage area 11. A filter unit 16 is installed on the grating 17, and High cleanliness space 18 below the clean unit 12
This is production equipment for semiconductors, etc., housed inside.

The clean unit 12 houses a fan 28, a high performance filter 26, and a damper 33 in a box-shaped casing 70 formed in a long tunnel shape along the production line. Front wall 2 as the front end of the casing 70 of the clean unit 12
3 has a rectangular connection port 2 leading to the working passage area 11.
4, 24... are provided along the production line at regular intervals. A rectangular blind plate 44 is attached to the connection port 24 of the clean unit 12.
It is attached with bolts as shown in detail in FIG. 4, which is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 2. A decorative board 45 is attached to the work passage area 11 so as to cover this blind board 44.
It is installed from the side. A sealing material or the like is interposed between the front wall 23 and the blind plate 44 to prevent air from leaking. The bottom surface 70a of the casing 70 is opened downward, and a high-performance filter 2 is inserted into this opening.
A plurality of 6, 26... are installed along the production line. A fan chamber 29 housing a fan 28 for pumping air is provided in the rear part of the casing 70, and an air suction port 31 is provided on the upper surface 29a of the fan chamber 29, while the lower surface 29b of the fan chamber 29
A return air suction port 32 is provided in the. A buffer 80 is provided between the high performance filter 26 and the fan chamber 29. Further, the upper end of the right partition wall 13 is attached to the bottom surface 70a of the casing 70 located at the boundary between the high performance filter 26 and the fan chamber 29, and the right partition wall is suspended downward. Above right bulkhead 13
A vent hole 34 is formed between the lower end of the grating 17 and the grating 17. This right partition wall 13 separates the high cleanliness space 18 of the clean unit 12 from the service space 21. Air from the air conditioner is introduced into the fan chamber 29 via a duct (not shown) through the air suction port 31 of the fan chamber 29, and the return air suction port 3
2 to the high cleanliness space 18 and the return air from the vent 34 at the bottom of the right bulkhead 13 to the fan chamber 29.
has been introduced. On the other hand, a left partition wall 20 is attached to the lower end of the front wall 23 of the clean unit 12 and is suspended downward.

The state of the clean unit before expansion shown in FIG. 2 is transformed into the expanded state of the clean unit shown in FIG. 1 in the following manner.

In FIG. 1, after removing the blind plate 44 and the decorative plate 45 in the state shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the damper 41 and the rod 43 are attached to the fan 28 side of the connection port 24 of the clean unit 12, and then the connection port Production equipment 1 is located on the work passage area 11 side of 24.
An additional unit 15 of a size corresponding to the size of the unit 6 is added with bolts, and a high cleanliness space 18 below the high performance filters 26, 38 of each unit 12, 15 is added.
The production equipment 1 is expanded into this highly clean space 18.
Accommodate 6. This extension unit 15 has an opening in the right wall 15a of the box-shaped casing 37, and a bottom surface 15b.
A high performance filter 38 is installed. As shown in detail in FIG. 3, which is a partially enlarged view of FIG. 1, one end of the ceiling surface 35 of this casing 37 is connected to the shaped steel 81 of the front wall 23 of the clean unit 12 with bolts or the like. Then, the above expansion unit 1
The space 47 above the high performance filter 38 of No. 5 and the space 27 above the high performance filter 26 of the filter unit 12 are communicated through the connection port 24. Also, each connection port 24, 24 of the clean unit 12...
The air flow rate from the fan 28 is connected to the clean unit 12 side and the expansion unit 15.
Dampers 41, 41, . This damper 41 is detachably attached to the front wall 23 with bolts or the like. A handle 42 for adjusting the opening degree of the damper 41 is connected to the tip of a rod 43 that extends from the damper 41 along the vicinity of the ceiling surface of the casing 70 to the top of the service space 21 via a bevel gear 50, and can be operated manually. It's becoming like that. The above rod 43 is the damper 41
It is connected to the damper 41 with screws or the like so that it can be easily removed from the damper 41.

Then, the production equipment 16 is placed in the high cleanliness space 18.
is stored, and the opening degree of the damper 41 is adjusted using the handle 42 so that a predetermined flow rate of air is supplied to the clean unit 12 side and the expansion unit 15 side. Thereafter, the fan 28 is activated to send highly purified clean air downward from the high-performance filters 26 and 38 toward the production equipment 16, thereby maintaining the entire atmosphere of the production equipment 16 at a high level of air cleanliness.

In this way, the high cleanliness space can be easily expanded by simply connecting the extension unit 15 to the front wall of the clean unit 12 and connecting the two through the connection port 24.

On the other hand, in the case of production equipment 16 with a small width dimension, as shown in FIG. A blind plate 44 and a decorative plate 45 are attached to 24 with bolts, and the production equipment 16 is housed in the high cleanliness space 18 below the high performance filter 26.

In this way, according to this method, it is possible to easily and inexpensively add an appropriate size extension unit 15 to the existing clean unit 12 according to the width dimension of the production equipment 16. Moreover, when changing the production process, the high cleanliness space 18 can be expanded to an arbitrary size according to the change.

<Effects of the Invention> As is clear from the above, according to this invention,
A connection port is provided at the front end facing the working passage area of the space above the high-performance filter of the clean unit, an extension unit is provided on the working passage area side of the clean unit, and the above-mentioned connection port is provided in the space above the high-performance filter of the clean unit. Since the space above the high-performance filter of the expansion unit is connected through the connection port, the high-cleanliness space below the high-performance filter can be easily and inexpensively expanded to an appropriate size using the existing clean unit. Further, according to the present invention, the clean unit and the extension unit can be connected through the connection port, so even after the clean unit is installed, the clean unit and the extension unit can be directly connected through the connection port. You can easily expand your high-cleanliness space just by connecting it. In addition, the high cleanliness space can be expanded with the simple structure of connecting an extension unit to the clean unit, so it can be handled and operated in exactly the same way as a conventional clean unit.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view showing the expansion unit of the above embodiment removed, and FIG. 3 shows the clean unit and expansion unit in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the attachment portion of the blind board and decorative board in FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view showing a conventional example. 10...Clean space room, 11...Work passage area, 1
2... Clean unit, 15... Expansion unit, 16... Production equipment, 18... High cleanliness space,
24... Connection port, 26, 38... High performance filter, 27, 47... Space.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Clean air is blown downward from a high-performance filter in order to form a tunnel-shaped high-cleanliness space with an air cleanliness higher than that of the work passage area in the clean space room. A clean unit is provided with a connection port at the front end facing the working passage area of the space above the high-performance filter of the clean unit,
An extension unit is installed on the work passage area side of the above clean unit, and the space above the high performance filter of the above extension unit is connected to the space above the high performance filter of the above clean unit through the above connection port to expand the high cleanliness space. A clean unit expansion method characterized by: