An information processing apparatus detecting presence or absence of abnormality of a vacuum pump derived from a product produced within a target vacuum pump, including: a determination unit configured to determine a normal variation range or a normal time variation behavior of a target state quantity which is a state quantity varying depending on a load of gas flowing into the vacuum pump, based on at least one of past target state quantities of the target vacuum pump or another vacuum pump; and a comparison unit configured to compare a current target state quantity of the target vacuum pump with the normal variation range or the normal time variation behavior and output the comparison result.

An abatement system with liquid-ring pump maintains an exhaust line at a negative pressure during operation of a vacuum pump. The vacuum pump operates to exhaust process gas and by-products from a process chamber through a foreline. The vacuum pump exhausts the process gas to the abatement system with liquid-ring pump through the exhaust line. The overall life of the vacuum pump is increased significantly because the exhaust line is maintained at a negative pressure which reduces precipitation of gases in the vacuum pump thereby reducing by-product accumulation and damage to the vacuum pump. The liquid-ring pump receives the exhaust process gas from the vacuum pump and outputs gas to a burn chamber and liquid to a recirculation tank. Liquid is recycled through the liquid-ring pump thereby reducing accumulation of precipitated gas and by-product. The overall life of the liquid-ring pump and vacuum pump are increased.

A vacuum exhaust system which exhausts gas from chambers and which comprises a plurality of branch channels for the exhaustion of the gas from the chambers, a main pipeline in the form of a confluence of the plurality of branch channels, channel open-close valves fitted to correspond with each of the said plurality of branch channels, a channel-switching valve connecting the main channel and a plurality of selection channels and allowing flow between the main channel and any one of the plurality of selection channels, a first pump which functions as a gas exhaust means in the molecular flow region of the gas and is fitted to one of the plurality of branch channels, and second pumps which function as gas exhaust means in the viscous flow region of the gas and are fitted to the plurality of selection channels.

The present invention relates to a pumping method in a pumping system (SP) comprising: a primary dry screw-type vacuum pump (3) with a gas entry orifice (2) connected to a vacuum chamber (1) and a gas exit orifice (4) leading into a conduit (5) before coming out into the gas outlet (8) of the pumping system (SP), a non-return valve (6) positioned in the conduit (5) between the gas exit orifice (4) and the gas outlet (8), and an ejector (7) connected in parallel to the non-return valve (6). According to this method, the primary dry screw-type vacuum pump (3) is put into operation in order to pump the gases contained in the vacuum chamber (1) through the gas exit orifice (4); in a simultaneous way, the ejector (7) is fed with working fluid, and the ejector (7) continues to be fed with working fluid all the time that the primary dry screw-type vacuum pump (3) pumps the gases contained in the vacuum chamber (1) and/or all the time that the primary dry screw-type vacuum pump (3) maintains a defined pressure in the vacuum chamber (1). The present invention also relates to a pumping system (SP) able to be used for implementing this method.

The present invention concerns a dry vacuum pump comprising: a drive device (1) comprising a drive shaft (3) at one end of which is fixed at least one drive wheel (4) provided to set in motion at least one belt (5); at least two parallel rotors (7, 8) each having a shaft (9, 10) provided with a rotor element (11, 12), this shaft (9, 10) being able to be driven in rotation by the belt (5) and being equipped at one of its axial ends with a toothed wheel (13, 14), this pump having the special features that: the drive wheel (4) and the belt (5) are smooth; each shaft (9, 10) of the rotor (7, 8) comprises at least one smooth section (16, 17) arranged to co-operate with the belt (5), and the toothed wheels (13, 14) of the shafts (9, 10) of the rotor (7, 8) are dimensioned and arranged to mesh with one another.

A jetting dispensing system includes a dispenser body with a fluid chamber and a valve element, and a progressive cavity pump for feeding fluid into the fluid chamber. The progressive cavity pump propagates a plurality of separated cavities of fluid along an elongate length thereof to generate and maintain an incoming fluid pressure at a fluid inlet and the fluid chamber of the dispenser body. Accordingly, the droplets that are generated from operating the valve element in jetting dispensing cycles may define a volume of fluid, regardless of variations in fluid viscosity and variations in operational speed of the jetting dispensing system. Furthermore, the velocity profile of fluid exiting the dispenser body may be more constant to avoid causing changes in fluid velocity that can damage fluid particles and/or cause rotational tumbling or blossoming of the droplet while in flight towards the substrate.

A vacuum pumping apparatus may include: a common pumping line having a plurality of pumping line inlets and a pumping line outlet, each pumping line inlet being configured to couple with an outlet of an associated plurality of vacuum processing chambers; at least one primary vacuum pump in fluid communication with the pumping line outlet to pump gas from each vacuum processing chamber; and control logic operable to control operation of the primary vacuum pump in response to an indication of an operating state of the plurality of vacuum processing chambers. In this way, the performance of the primary vacuum pump can be adjusted to match the load provided by the processing chambers and when there is an excess capacity, the performance of the primary vacuum pumps can be reduced, which can lead to significant energy savings and reduce wear on the pump.

A vacuum pumping system includes a plurality of positive displacement vacuum pumps, and more particularly a plurality of positive displacement vacuum pumps working in parallel. The vacuum pumping system includes a management unit that carries out a synchronized control of all the positive displacement vacuum pumps of the vacuum pumping system and thus allows to check possible risk of contamination of the vacuum pumping system and carry out, if needed, the necessary corrective actions without requiring any modification to the construction of the vacuum pumping system.

To overcome the problem associated with liquid or solid process debris from a vacuum process system falling into, and contaminating or damaging, a vacuum pumping arrangement used to evacuate the system, the inlet of the vacuum pumping arrangement is located lower than the outlet of the arrangement. This provides a net flow of gas pumped by the arrangement in a generally upwards direction thereby resisting the passage of contaminants into the arrangement.

The present invention relates to a pumping method in a pumping system (SP) comprising: a primary dry screw-type vacuum pump (3) with a gas entry orifice (2) connected to a vacuum chamber (1) and a gas exit orifice (4) leading into a conduit (5) before coming out into the gas outlet (8) of the pumping system (SP), a non-return valve (6) positioned in the conduit (5) between the gas exit orifice (4) and the gas outlet (8), and an ejector (7) connected in parallel to the non-return valve (6). According to this method, the primary dry screw-type vacuum pump (3) is put into operation in order to pump the gases contained in the vacuum chamber (1) through the gas exit orifice (4); in a simultaneous way, the ejector (7) is fed with working fluid, and the ejector (7) continues to be fed with working fluid all the time that the primary dry screw-type vacuum pump (3) pumps the gases contained in the vacuum chamber (1) and/or all the time that the primary dry screw-type vacuum pump (3) maintains a defined pressure in the vacuum chamber (1). The present invention also relates to a pumping system (SP) able to be used for implementing this method.