WO2010134761A2

WO2010134761A2 - Plasma gas scrubber device

Info

Publication number: WO2010134761A2
Application number: PCT/KR2010/003179
Authority: WO
Inventors: 김익년; 장홍기; 지영연
Original assignee: 트리플코어스코리아
Priority date: 2009-05-22
Filing date: 2010-05-20
Publication date: 2010-11-25
Also published as: KR20100126167A; WO2010134761A3; KR101113722B1; TW201125632A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a plasma gas scrubber device. The plasma gas scrubber device according to the present invention comprises: a plurality of processing chambers where waste gas is treated by means of plasma; a plurality of nozzles which are provided at the rear ends of the processing chambers and spray water onto the waste gas discharged from the processing chambers; a single water tank connected to the plurality of processing chambers and nozzles; and a single condenser which is connected to the water tank, and cools and condenses the water vapour produced from the processing chambers and the nozzles. Because the plasma gas scrubber device according to the present invention has a plurality of processing chambers, optimum waste gas treatment can be effected by appropriately selecting the number of processing chambers in accordance with the volume to be treated.

Description

Plasma gas scrubber

The present invention relates to a plasma gas scrubber apparatus, and more particularly, to a plasma gas scrubber apparatus capable of treating a large amount of waste gas in an economical manner.

If you heat up a gaseous substance and raise the temperature, you'll create an aggregate of particles that consist of an ion nucleus and free electrons. Along with the three forms of matter, solid, liquid and gas, it is called the 'fourth state of matter' and this state of matter is called plasma. Various application devices using the plasma have been continuously developed and applied. One such plasma application is the treatment of waste gases which are essentially generated in semiconductors, chemical processes and the like.

One of the waste gas treatment methods according to the prior art is a combination of a plasma process and a water-cooled process. As an example, Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 10-2007-0066998 discloses a configuration including a gas treatment chamber in which a plasma process is performed, a nozzle for injecting water into the gas treatment chamber, a water tank generated from the gas treatment chamber, and the like. . However, since the conventional waste gas scrubber apparatus has one reaction chamber in one system, it is very difficult to operate the scrubber under optimum conditions for each of the semiconductor equipment having different amounts of waste gas discharged. Furthermore, the prior art simply strips the gas decomposed and treated by plasma into water, and since the actual water is discharged from the reaction chamber while maintaining a liquid state, an excessively large water tank (or reservoir) Was required. In particular, when the type and amount of waste gas generated from semiconductor equipment increases, the system (one reaction chamber, one water tank) according to the prior art is very inefficient in implementing a large capacity scrubber, and its maintenance / repair There is also a problem that is quite difficult.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and to provide a gas scrubber device that can effectively treat the waste gas generated from various kinds of semiconductor equipment.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a plasma gas scrubber apparatus, comprising: a plurality of process chambers in which waste gas is processed by the plasma; A plurality of nozzles provided at rear ends of the process chambers for injecting water into waste gas discharged from the process chambers; One water tank connected to the plurality of process chambers and nozzles; And a condenser connected to the water tank, the condenser for cooling and condensing water vapor generated from the process chamber and the nozzle. In one embodiment of the present invention, the water is directly injected into the plasma torch discharged from the process chamber, the plurality of process chambers are connected to one first exhaust line, the first analyzer is provided with a first analyzer do. In another embodiment of the present invention, a second exhaust line is provided at the rear end of the condenser, and a second analyzer is provided on the exhaust line.

In another embodiment of the present invention, waste gas discharged from a plurality of semiconductor facilities is introduced into the first exhaust line, and in another embodiment of the present invention, each process chamber is a separate semiconductor equipment exhaust line. Can be connected to.

1 is a schematic diagram of a plasma scrubber apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic diagram showing a plasma gas scrubber apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram of a plasma gas rubber device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a block diagram of a plasma gas scrubber apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a configuration diagram of a plasma gas scrubber apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings of the present invention will be described in detail. The following embodiments are provided as examples to sufficiently convey the spirit of the present invention to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below and may be embodied in other forms. In the drawings, the width, length, thickness, etc. of the components may be exaggerated for convenience. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

Referring to FIG. 1, the scrubber apparatus 100 according to the present invention includes a plurality of process chambers 110, a nozzle 130 for spraying water, and a water tank in which the plurality of process chambers and the nozzles 130 are commonly connected. 160, a condenser 170.

Plasma is generated in the process chamber 110 to treat waste gas flowing into the process chamber. Particularly, in the present invention, the plurality of process chambers 110 are configured in parallel, and the plurality of process chambers 110 connected in parallel are commonly connected to the water tank 160 and the condenser 170 in the rear stage. In this case, it is possible to flexibly select the waste gas capacity to be treated simultaneously while greatly reducing the size of the entire apparatus. Furthermore, the scrubber treatment capacity can be greatly increased and easier maintenance is possible.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the scrubber according to the present invention will be described in more detail.

2 is a schematic diagram showing a gas scrubber device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, a plasma generator 120 is connected to each of the process chambers 110. The plasma generation unit 120 may be a microwave generation plasma generation unit including a magnetron (not shown), a 3-stub matcher (not shown), and the like. However, any plasma generating method other than the microwave method may be used in the present invention, which is within the scope of the present invention.

Another gas for generating or maintaining plasma together with waste gas generated from semiconductor equipment is introduced into the process chamber 110, and waste gas introduced into the plasma formed in the process chamber 110 is decomposed. Thereafter, the decomposed waste gas exits to the rear end of the process chamber 110.

Thereafter, water is injected into the waste gas from the nozzle 130. In the present invention, unlike the conventional method of simply contacting the waste gas with water, the water is sprayed and evaporated onto the plasma torch (flame) discharged from the process chamber. The evaporated water and the waste gas are contacted again to strip the waste gas. Accordingly, one or more nozzles are provided in the rear end line of the process chamber 110, and more preferably in the rear end line in the height region of the plasma torch generated from the process chamber and discharged to the rear end. That is, when water is directly injected into the plasma generating unit, that is, the process chamber, there is a problem that the plasma generation is extinguished, so in the present invention, in particular, a method of spraying water onto the plasma torch discharged to the rear end of the process chamber 110 is employed. .

Thereafter, the plasma torch is evaporated by a heat source, and the water vapor reacted with the waste gas passes through the water tank 160. At this time, the water combined with the waste gas is to maintain a state of some steam, the water vapor is cooled, condensing (condensing) while passing through the condenser 170 falls back to the water tank 160, the exhaust gas after the condenser It is discharged to the outside through the exhaust line 180 of. In particular, in the present invention, it is possible to reduce the capacity of the water tank 160 from the technical configuration to maintain a certain steam state (this is achieved by the method of spraying water directly to the torch). Furthermore, when one water tank 160 is commonly used in a plurality of process chambers, waste gas treatment of a larger capacity is possible as compared to the conventional art having a small water tank in each of the process chambers. In particular, when the capacity of the waste gas discharged from each of the semiconductor equipment is different, there is a problem that a specific water tank fills up too fast in the prior art using a small water tank in each chamber. However, the present invention uses one large water tank for the plurality of process chambers, thereby effectively preventing and solving the problems of the prior art.

3 is a block diagram of a gas scrubber apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, each of the plurality of

process chambers

110a, 110b, and 110c is connected to one first exhaust line 300. At this time, the first exhaust line 300 is connected to at least one semiconductor facility, and the waste gas discharged from the semiconductor facility flows into the first exhaust line 300 through a waste gas discharge line communicating from the semiconductor facility. Then, it is introduced into the plurality of process chambers. In particular, in the above configuration, there is an advantage that the selective operation of the process chamber is possible according to the process conditions. For example, when the processing capacity is low, when only one of the plurality of process chambers is connected to the exhaust line 300 (for example, the semiconductor device is opened by opening the valve v between the exhaust line and the process chamber). Can be selectively connected to the process chamber), using only one of the process chambers, effective waste gas treatment is possible. In particular, the configuration allows for a more economical plasma based gas scrubber implementation, in that the plasma treatment consumes relatively high energy.

4 is a configuration diagram of a gas scrubber apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, the gas scrubber apparatus includes a first exhaust line 300 connected to a plurality of process chambers and a second exhaust line 310 connected to a rear end of the condenser 170. At this time, the first and

second analyzers

320a and 320b for analyzing the gas flowing into / out of the first exhaust line 300 and the second exhaust line 310 are provided. This configuration of the present invention is distinguished from the prior art in which an analyzer is installed at the front and rear of the process chamber for each plasma process chamber, and the configuration of the present invention enables the use and operation of expensive analyzers with a minimum. Furthermore, since the exhaust gas component of the entire system can be analyzed, it is possible to avoid the inconvenience of the prior art in which the exhaust gas component is analyzed for each process chamber and then integrated.

5 is a configuration diagram of a gas scrubber apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the gas scrubber apparatus according to the embodiment includes the configuration illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, that is, a plurality of plasma generators, a process chamber, a water spray nozzle, and a water tank and a condenser connected thereto. Has Each of the plurality of process chambers may be connected to an exhaust line of a separate semiconductor facility (equipment A, facility B, facility C). The above arrangement is particularly applicable to the case where each of the waste gas discharged from the semiconductor equipment is different (for example, the waste gas discharge capacity of the equipment C in FIG. 4 is larger), each using a small water tank provided in each gas scrubber. In the case of technology, there is a problem that a particular water tank fills up excessively fast. However, the present invention uses one large water tank for the plurality of process chambers, thereby effectively preventing and solving the problems of the prior art. Furthermore, when the exhaust lines generated from the facilities A, B, C are connected to each other, the gas scrubber according to the present invention has the configuration disclosed in Figures 3 and 4, in which case malfunction occurs in a specific process chamber In this case, the valve of the waste gas inlet line flowing into the process chamber is abnormal, the operator can easily maintain and repair it. In this case, waste gas flowing into the process chamber having a malfunction is bypassed to another chamber.

Claims

In the plasma gas scrubber apparatus,

A plurality of process chambers in which waste gas is processed by the plasma;

A plurality of nozzles provided at rear ends of the process chambers for injecting water into waste gas discharged from the process chambers;

One water tank connected to the plurality of process chambers and nozzles; And

And a condenser connected to the water tank for cooling and condensing water vapor generated from the process chamber and the nozzle.
The method of claim 1,

Each of the plurality of process chambers, the plasma gas scrubber apparatus, characterized in that the plasma generating unit for generating a plasma in each of the process chambers.
The method of claim 1,

And the water is sprayed directly onto the plasma torch discharged from the process chamber.
The method of claim 1,

The plurality of process chambers are connected to one first exhaust line, wherein the first exhaust line is provided with a first analyzer, characterized in that the plasma gas scrubber.
The method of claim 1,

A second exhaust line is provided at the rear end of the condenser, and a second analyzer is provided on the exhaust line.
The method of claim 4, wherein

And a waste gas discharged from a plurality of semiconductor facilities is introduced into the first exhaust line.
The method of claim 1,

Wherein each process chamber is connected to a separate semiconductor equipment exhaust line.