Development of a Xenon Recycling and Supply System for Plasma Process

摘要

Xenon (Xe) has been used in damage-free plasma processes for realizing future semiconductor device manufacturing, even though being very rare and expensive. Therefore, we developed a system that can recycle with a high recovery ratio and supply low-cost Xe. This system can separate Xe from gas mixtures, including Nitrogen (N{sub}2), Argon (Ar), Oxygen (O{sub}2), Hydrogen (H{sub}2), and Helium (He), with a 99.999% recovery ratio. Usage of this system lowered Xe costs to less than 1/100th the cost of a Xe cylinder.