Helium management control system
First Claim
1. A system for controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators comprising:
- a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant;
one or more sensors, in communication with the high pressure supply line and low pressure exhaust line, configured to facilitate determining a differential pressure between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line;
a plurality of refrigerators coupled to the compressor bank, the refrigerators capable of consuming the refrigerant; and
an electronic controller configured to respond to the sensor being defective by processing a compressor check routine.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A helium management control system for controlling the helium refrigerant supply from a common manifold supplies cryogenic refrigerators with an appropriate helium supply. The system employs sensors to monitor and regulate the overall refrigerant supply to deliver an appropriate refrigerant supply to each of the cryogenic refrigerators depending on the computed aggregate cooling demand of all of the cryogenic refrigerators. An appropriate supply of helium is distributed to each cryopump by sensing excess and sparse helium and redistributing refrigerant accordingly. If the total refrigeration supply exceeds the demand, or consumption, excess refrigerant is directed to cryogenic refrigerators which can utilize the excess helium to complete a current cooling function more quickly. If the total refrigeration demand exceeds the total refrigeration supply, the refrigerant supply to some or all of the cryogenic refrigerators will be reduced accordingly so that detrimental or slowing effects are minimized based upon the current cooling function.
49 Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A system for controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators comprising:
-
a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant; one or more sensors, in communication with the high pressure supply line and low pressure exhaust line, configured to facilitate determining a differential pressure between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; a plurality of refrigerators coupled to the compressor bank, the refrigerators capable of consuming the refrigerant; and an electronic controller configured to respond to the sensor being defective by processing a compressor check routine. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A method for controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators, the method including:
-
monitoring a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant to one or more refrigerators, the refrigerant including helium; using one or more sensors, determining a pressure differential between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; detecting that the sensor is defective; and responding to the detection of the defective sensor by processing a compressor check routine. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. An electronic controller configured to controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators, the controller including a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer readable instructions embodied thereon and configured to:
-
monitor a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant to one or more refrigerators, the refrigerant including helium; determine, using one or more sensors, a pressure differential between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; detect that the sensor is defective; and respond to the defective sensor by processing a compressor check routine.
-
-
15. A system for controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators comprising:
-
a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant; one or more sensors, in communication with the high pressure supply line and low pressure exhaust line, configured to facilitate determining a differential pressure between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; a plurality of refrigerators coupled to the compressor bank, the refrigerators capable of consuming the refrigerant; and an electronic controller configured to respond to the sensor being defective by determining a state of the compressor bank and controlling refrigerator operation based on the determined state. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
-
24. A method for controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators, the method including:
-
monitoring a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant to one or more refrigerators, the refrigerant including helium; using one or more sensors, determining a pressure differential between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; and responding to detecting that the one or more sensors is defective by determining a state of the compressor bank and controlling refrigerator operation based on the determined state. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
-
-
27. An electronic controller configured to controlling the supply of refrigerant to a plurality of refrigerators, the controller including a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer readable instructions embodied thereon and configured to:
-
monitor a compressor bank including at least one compressor, the compressor including a high pressure supply line and a low pressure exhaust line, the compressor bank capable of supplying a refrigerant to one or more refrigerators, the refrigerant including helium; determine, using one or more sensors, a pressure differential between the high pressure supply line and the low pressure exhaust line; detect if the sensor is defective; and respond to the detected defective sensor by determining a state of the compressor bank and controlling refrigerator operation based on the determined state. - View Dependent Claims (28)
-
Specification