Ex Parte Lee et al - Page 4




              Appeal No. 2002-1874                                                                 Page 4                
              Application No. 09/553,302                                                                                 


                     The appellants’ invention relates to an apparatus for storing and dispensing high                   
              purity liquids for use in fabricating microelectronic substrates and the like, such as                     
              deionized water.  Each of the appellants’ independent claims is directed to an                             
              apparatus for storage of a liquid comprising a storage tank in fluid communication with                    
              a liquid inlet port, a liquid outlet port, a gas inlet port and a gas outlet port, and a floating          
              plug valve connected to and in fluid communication with the gas outlet port.                               
                     Mair is directed to a system for storing in the liquid phase products that normally                 
              are in the gaseous phase, such as compressed ammonia.  Mair discloses a tank (17) in                       
              which the ammonia is present in liquid form in the lower portion of the tank and in                        
              gaseous form in the upper portion. The tank is in fluid communication with a first liquid                  
              inlet port (61) through which liquid ammonia is delivered to the tank from a storage                       
              system, a liquid outlet port (70) in fluid communication with the tank through which liquid                
              ammonia is delivered from the storage tank to a point of use, and a gas outlet port (23)                   
              in the form of a relief valve which activates upon the presence of an unacceptably high                    
              pressure in the tank.  A flash tank (40) is provided for receiving gaseous ammonia from                    
              the upper portion of the tank and recondensing it into liquid for return to the tank.  As                  
              explained in column 4, line 53 et seq.,                                                                    
                     liquid ammonia from the body 41 [of liquid ammonia] contained in the                                
                     flash tank 40 is supplied via the pipe 47 through the expansion valve 48                            
                     and the outlet 49 into the interior of tube 25 [in the tank].  This liquid                          
                     ammonia is relatively warm and under relatively high pressure, whereby a                            
                     first portion thereof immediately flashes within the tube 25 into gaseous                           








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