Abatement of Effluent Species from MOCVD Processes
Faller, Rebecca (ATMI, San Jose, California and )
Cheung, Beverly (SAME)
One of the fastest growing semiconductor markets is the compound semiconductor arena, which includes products such as light emitting diodes (LED’s), high temperature semiconductors, and high frequency semiconductors for telecommunications devices. A commonly used manufacturing method for III-V compound semiconductor devices is metal organic chemical vapor deposition, commonly referred to as MOCVD. The III-V compound semiconductors include metals or semimetals from Group III of the periodic table, such as Al, Ga, or In as well as non-metals from Group V of the periodic table. Typical precursor materials for the Group V constituents of compound semiconductors include arsine (AsH3) and phosphine (PH3). Because of the highly toxic gaseous nature of these materials, abatement equipment is necessary to control the emission of materials at MOCVD process exhausts. Abatement equipment must be highly effective in the removal of these hazardous materials to below the respective threshold limit values (TLV). Traditionally, abatement of toxic exhaust gases from MOCVD processes has been performed by dry scrubbing methods. While this method has been highly effective, problems such as high temperatures can arise during abatement due to the nature of the abatement chemistry. This paper describes a customized dry scrubber product to be installed at the exhaust of MOCVD processes. This product is not only capable of abating all process exhaust gases to below TLV, but also controls unwanted temperature conditions. The customized dry scrubbing product described herein provides a safe, cost effective method of abating highly toxic MOCVD process effluents.