Patent ID: 9721763
Date: 2017-08-01
CPC Classifications: C23C,G05D,H01J,H01L,Y10T

Claim:
1. A gas supply system for providing a plurality of process gases to a process chamber, the gas supply system comprising: a plurality of mass flow controllers each arranged to receive a respective subset of the plurality of process gases, wherein each of the respective subsets of the plurality of process gases includes more than one of the plurality of process gases, and wherein at least one of the process gases is provided to more than one of the plurality of mass flow controllers; a respective plurality of valves arranged upstream of each of the plurality of mass flow controllers to selectively provide the respective subsets of the plurality of process gases to the plurality of mass flow controllers, wherein (i) each of the mass flow controllers is connected to a plurality of the valves, (ii) each of the plurality of valves is independently connected to a respective source of one of the process gases, and (iii) each of the plurality of valves is independently connected to a respective one of the plurality of mass flow controllers such that each of the plurality of valves is connected to only one of the plurality of mass flow controllers; and a mixing manifold arranged between the plurality of mass flow controllers and the process chamber, the mixing manifold configured to receive and mix respective process gases from each of the plurality of mass flow controllers prior to providing the respective process gases to the process chamber, wherein a first quantity of the plurality of mass flow controllers is less than a total number of the plurality of process gases to be supplied to the process chamber, and wherein the first quantity is equal to a maximum number of the plurality of process gases to be used in the process chamber at any one time.