Comparative Analysis of Thermodynamic Performance for an Improved Semiconductor Scrubber System
Subeen Wi, Hyoung Woon Song, Dongkyu Lee, Hyun-Kyung Kim, Jonghyuk Yoon · Journal of the Korean Society for Environmental Technology · 2023
The 4th industrial revolution has brought about the increasing importance of sensors, particularly with the introduction of 5G and AI. As the size of the semiconductor market expands and research progresses on ultra-miniaturization, the amount of waste gas produced during the semiconductor manufacturing process has also increased. As a result, the development of gas scrubber technology to treat waste gas has become a critical area of study. However, conventional semiconductor scrubber systems face several challenges. These include clogging of pores in the catalyst layer due to particulate matter, corrosiveness of pipes due to the fluorine gas and high heater capacity requirements due to absence of waste heat recovery unit. In this study, we introduce a by-product removal unit and a waste heat recovery systeminto scrubber system in order to overcome its limitations. A thermodynamic analysis was conducted to compare the performance of the new scrubber with the conventional system using heat and mass balance modeling. Our results show that the introduction of the waste heat recovery unit reduces the heater capacity of the modified scrubber to 55 % of that of the conventional scrubber. Furthermore, the N2O decomposition energy efficiency of the modified scrubber is 1.8 times higher than that of the conventional scrubber. In addition, the effect of effectiveness on parasitic energy consumption was evaluated. Our proposed design and thermodynamic analysis provide a useful framework for the optimization of semiconductor gas scrubber systems.