Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
The performance of pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology was assessed for recovering PFCs from the exhaust of a semiconductor plasma process. Several PSA process conditions were run to determine an optimized system. Under well defined conditions, the PSA technique was found to be effective at separating C2F6 from nitrogen, although the balance between recovery and product purity was evident. The exhaust of a plasma chamber was analysed by mass spectrometers and plasma etching conditions were varied to determine the effects on the PSA performance. A gas reactor column (GRC) was tested as pre‐treatment of the capturing system