Perfluorocarbon Destruction and Removal Efficiency: Considering the Byproducts and Energy Consumption of an Abatement System for Microelectronics Manufacturing

The purpose of this paper was to estimate the reduction efficiency of an abatement system for perfluorocarbon (PFC) gases produced during semiconductor manufacturing processes. The reduction efficiency currently used in the semiconductor industry, the destruction and removal efficiency (DRE), considers only the destruction ratio of PFC gases. A method estimating the reduction efficiency, which in addition to measure the destruction ratio also considers the energy consumption and byproducts produced during the treatment of PFC gases, was proposed in this paper; this efficiency was defined as the net reduction efficiency (NRE). For the estimation of the reduction efficiency, measurements were made using a plasma-wet type abatement system installed in an actual semiconductor manufacturing plant. The destruction ratio of the PFC gases was measured using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and quadrupole mass spectroscopy. The energy consumption was measured using an electricity meter. Based on these measurements, the DRE and the NRE of the PFC gases were calculated and compared. The results indicated that the DRE showed high reduction efficiency while the NRE showed lower values.