Silent discharge plasma for point-of-use abatement of VOC emissions. Final report ESHCOO3(b)

摘要

Los Alamos and SEMATECH have evaluated a silent discharge plasma (SDP) device for point-of-use (POU) control of specific semiconductor VOC emissions at the source. Destruction efficiencies were initially determined at the bench scale using controlled gas mixtures and system performance was measured for simulated emissions containing a variety of volatile organic compounds (including HMDS) and PFCs. Based on this work, a field-pilot unit was designed and tested at a SEMATECH member site using two slip-streams: (1) PGMEA and HMDS gas mixture from lithography tools and the, (2) acetone, PCE and methanol from a wet bench cleaning tool. Based on the pilot test data, CoO estimates for the SDP technology show annual operating expenses (including amortized capital and installation costs, maintenance, and utilities) are $8.3K for a single 250 scfm lithotrack tool. End-of-pipe (EOP) system costs are $33.3K per 1000 scfm as compared to about $22K per 1000 scfm for a typical EOP concentrator/thermal abatement system. LANL does not recommend replacing existing EOP systems with SDP. However SDP could be easily installed in (open quotes)niche(close quotes) circumstances for POU control of VOCs from lithotrack tools.