Triggered sampling systems and methods

{
  "publication_number": "US11268930B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Triggered sampling systems and methods",
  "abstract": "Described herein are monitoring systems and methods, including for airborne molecular contamination (AMC), that combine a sampler, such as an impinger or sorbent tube with a real time analyzer, such as an ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) or optical particle counter. The system may allow for selective sampling in which the sampler is only exposed to the target fluid during periods in which the real time analyzer detects analytes, such as molecular contamination or particles, meeting particular criteria such the composition and/or concentration of analytes. The invention also includes impinger systems having a sampler reservoir comprising an anion leaching resistant material characterized by low anion leach rates in the presence of deionized water.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A monitoring system comprising: a real time analyzer for monitoring one or more analytes in a fluid; a sampler comprising an impinger, impactor, filter or sorbent tube; and a flow system operably connected to said real time analyzer and said sampler; wherein said flow system is configured such that upon detection of said one or more analytes in said fluid by said real time analyzer said flow system directs fluid to said sampler for sampling; wherein said real time analyzer comprises an optical particle counter; wherein the optical particle counter is a light scattering-based optical particle counter, extinction-based optical particle counter, fluorescence-based optical particle counter, an interferometric-based optical particle counter or any combination of these.",
    "2. The system of claim 1, wherein said flow system is configured such that said sampler samples said fluid upon or after detection of said one or more analytes meeting one or more real time analyzer analyte detection criteria selected from the group consisting of: a threshold concentration of analyte; a threshold amount of analyte; a threshold frequency of detection of analyte; a threshold number of counts of analyte per unit time; and an analyte composition.",
    "3. The system of claim 2, wherein upon detection of said one or more analytes meeting said one or more real time analyzer analyte detection criteria, a trigger signal is provided to said flow system which triggers said flow system to direct said fluid to said sampler for sampling.",
    "4. The system of claim 1, wherein said sampler samples said fluid for at least as long as said real time analyzer detects said one or more analytes and/or wherein said sampler samples said fluid for a predetermined time upon detection of said one or more analytes.",
    "5. The system of claim 1, wherein said sampler is isolated from said fluid except during or for a selected time period after a detection event, wherein the onset set of said detection event is triggered by the detection of said one or more analytes in said fluid by said real time analyzer.",
    "6. A monitoring system comprising: a real time analyzer for monitoring one or more analytes in a fluid; a sampler comprising an impinger; and a flow system operably connected to said real time analyzer and said sampler; wherein said flow system is configured such that upon detection of said one or more analytes in said fluid by said real time analyzer said flow system directs fluid to said sampler for sampling; wherein said impinger comprises an anion leaching resistant material characterized by an anion leach rate in the presence of deionized water less than 0.5 μg L −1 week −1.",
    "7. The system of claim 1, wherein said sampler is said impactor; wherein said impactor comprises: a sampling head comprising one or more intake apertures for sampling said fluid; and an impactor base operationally connected to receive at least a portion of said fluid from said sampling head; said impactor base comprising an impact surface for receiving at least a portion of analytes comprising particles in said fluid and an outlet for exhausting said fluid.",
    "8. The system of claim 1, wherein said sampler is said sorbent tube; wherein said sorbent tube comprises a sorbent tube medium selected from the group consisting of: activated carbon, silica gel, a polymer material, Tenax, Amberlite, XAD, Polyurethane Foam and any combinations of these.",
    "9. The system of claim 1; wherein said flow system comprises one or more valves or fluid actuators for directing fluid to said sampler for sampling.",
    "10. The system of claim 1 further comprising a processor configured to receive a signals from said real time analyzer and configured to send a trigger signal to said flow system to initiate directing said fluid to said sampler for sampling; wherein said processor compares said signals from said real time analyzer and identifies a detection event when said signals are equal to or greater than a threshold value; wherein said processor sends said trigger signal to said flow system upon identification of a detection event.",
    "11. The system of claim 1, wherein said fluid is a process gas or sample gas from an environment undergoing monitoring; wherein said one or more analytes are one or more acids or said one or more analytes are one or more bases or said one or more analytes are one or more volatile organic compounds or said one or more analytes are particles.",
    "12. A monitoring system comprising: a real time analyzer for monitoring one or more analytes in a fluid; wherein said real time analyzer comprises an optical particle counter; wherein the optical particle counter is a light scattering-based optical particle counter, extinction-based optical particle counter, fluorescence-based optical particle counter, an interferometric-based optical particle counter or any combination of these; a sampler comprising an impinger, the impinger comprising: an inlet for sampling said gas; and a sampler reservoir containing deionized water for receiving gas from said inlet, wherein said reservoir comprises an anion leaching resistant material characterized by an anion leach rate in the presences of deionized water less than 0.5 μg L −1 week −1; and a flow system operably connected to said real time analyzer and said impinger; wherein said flow system is configured such that upon detection of said one or more analytes in said fluid by said real time analyzer said flow system directs fluid to said impinger for sampling.",
    "13. A method for monitoring one or more analytes in a fluid comprising: providing the monitoring system of claim 1; monitoring said analytes in said fluid using said real time analyzer; and sampling the fluid using said sampler upon detection of said one or more analytes by said real time analyzer.",
    "14. The method of claim 13, further comprising triggering said sampling step upon detection of said analyte via said real time analyzer; wherein said sampler samples said fluid upon or after detection of said one or more analytes meeting one or more real time monitoring analyte detection criteria selected from the group consisting of: a threshold concentration of analyte; a threshold amount of analyte; a threshold frequency of detection of analyte; a threshold number of counts of analyte per unit time; and an analyte composition.",
    "15. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing a signal from output of said real time detector or derived from output of said real time detector to trigger said step of sampling fluid using said sampler upon detection of said one or more analytes by said real time analyzer.",
    "16. The method of claim 13, wherein said sampler samples said fluid for at least as long as said real time analyzer detects said one or more analytes or wherein said sampler samples said fluid for a predetermined time upon detection of said one or more analytes.",
    "17. The method claim 13, wherein said system further comprises a flow system operably connected to said real time analyzer and said sampler; wherein said flow system is configured such that upon detection of said one or more analytes in said fluid by said real time analyzer, said flow system directs fluid to said sampler for sampling.",
    "18. The method of claim 13, wherein said system further comprises a processor configured to receive a signals from said real time analyzer and configured to send a trigger signal to said flow system to initiate directing said sampler for sampling.",
    "19. The method of claim 13, further comprising analyzing the sampler or material collected, captured or transformed by said sampler to determine the composition or concentration of said analyte.",
    "20. The method of claim 13, further comprising culturing particles collected or captured by the sampler to determine if said particles are biological particles.",
    "21. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said sampler is said impinger and said one or more analytes are atomic analytes, molecular analytes, and/or ionic analytes.",
    "22. The monitoring system of claim 21, wherein said one or more analytes are airborne molecular contaminants.",
    "23. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said sampler is said impactor and said one or more analytes are biological particles.",
    "24. The monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said optical particle counter monitors airborne particles having an effective diameter greater than 5 nm and said sampler is for airborne molecular contamination monitoring.",
    "25. The monitoring system of claim 24, wherein said monitored airborne particles have an effective diameter between 10 nm and 0.5 μm."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "Impingers including bubblers, and sorbent tubes are widely used throughout various industries, including semiconductor manufacturing, for monitoring of airborne molecular contamination. These devices work by flowing a fluid (e.g. air, process gas or mixture of gases) through an absorbent material, a liquid in the case of impingers or bubblers or a granular solid in the case of sorbent tubes. The absorbent material is exposed to the fluid for a set time period, then removed for external testing such as mass spectroscopy or gas chromatography to identify and/or quantify contaminants that were present in the fluid and transferred into the absorbent material.\n\nWhile the use of impingers and sorbent tubes is both cost effective and accurate, they lack the ability to provide any real time feedback to the manufacturing process. Depending on the time between replacement and analysis of the impinger, contamination may not be detected until days later. Once analyzed, impingers also cannot provide an exact time component as there is no method to determine when the contamination is captured by the impinger, so they provide only that contamination has occurred at some point over a relatively long time period. This means that a large number of manufactured products may have been exposed and must be tested or removed from production.\n\nIt can be seen from the foregoing that there remains a need in the art for airborne molecular contamination sampling systems and methods that provide more granularity with regard to the time in which the contamination is captured.",
  "cpc": [
    "G01N 27/622",
    "G01N 1/2208",
    "G01N 1/2214",
    "G01N 1/2273",
    "G01N 15/075",
    "G01N 15/1425",
    "G01N 15/1459",
    "G01N 15/149",
    "G01N 2015/1486",
    "G01N 2015/1493",
    "H01J 49/145",
    "H01J 49/168"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "G01N 27/62",
    "H01J 49/14",
    "H01J 49/16",
    "G01N 27/622"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "Particle Measuring Systems Inc"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "Daniel Rodier",
    "Brian KNOLLENBERG",
    "Isidro SANCHEZ"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2020-08-25",
  "publication_date": "2022-03-08",
  "grant_date": "2022-03-08",
  "priority_date": "2019-08-26",
  "application_number": "US-202017002441-A",
  "family_id": "74680888",
  "cited_by_count": 12,
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