Kenichi Bandoh

Response of Proportional Valve Using Shape-Memory-Alloy Array Actuators

Abstract To realize a small size proportional valve with simple structure, a spool driving actuator using shape memory alloy (SMA) fine wires in arrayed arrangement is proposed and the response is investigated, Firstly, the basic characteristics of the actuator are stated. Secondly, a proportional valve is fabricated and tested with constant cooling oil flow velocity. Then, for practical forced oil-cooling using return flow, a robust control method using a disturbance observer is applied and the practical band width of 50Hz is realized independent of the cooling oil flow velocity and the amplitude of the input signal.

Master-Slaves Control Based on Model Reference Sliding-Mode Control (Temperature Locus Follow-Up Control of Multi-Zone Cooling Plate)

Most heat treatment equipments that control a large area to uniform temperature are divided into two or more zones, and the temperature control of each zone is carried out individually. However, for two or more zones with time delay, nonlinearity, uncertainty, and unknown disturbance, it is difficult to control each zone to an uniform temperature. Therefore, we propose a master-slaves control that can make those temperature loci in agreement with high precision. The proposed method is designed based on model reference sliding-mode control (MRSMC). Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method with applying to the multi-zone cooling plate for chilling a 300 [mm] wafer. By the proposed method, the temperature range across the wafer in cooling process is reduced within ± 0.1 [°C].