DAS Environmental Expert GmbH (DAS) has introduced a new system for waste gas abatement for the semiconductor industry. SPRUCE is a waste gas abatement system that operates entirely without fuel gas.“The new system closes a gap in our portfolio”, says Dr. Guy Davies, Director Business Unit Gas Abatement at DAS Environmental Expert GmbH. “We noticed that the demand for such systems is very high. There are semiconductor fabricators that basically want to avoid using fuel gas altogether. In addition, it is also easier to retrofit existing fabricators with abatement equipment, if one can do so without installing a fuel gas feeding system. This is a big market and we are now offering the right product.”
Cost efficiency and reliability
The company explains that there a particular need for cost-effective and reliable waste gas abatement in such manufacturing plants. DAS add that SPRUCE was specifically designed for the waste gas abatement of CVD processes (Chemical Vapor Deposition – CVD) in the semiconductor industry. Frequently the gases used in these processes are toxic, highly flammable, explosive, or harmful to the environment. SPRUCE reliably and cost-effectively eliminates residues of those gaseous substances from the manufacturing plant’s waste gases. “Process waste gases are introduced through a maximum of four separate inlets into a reactor, which is heated electrically from the outside”, explains Davies regarding the system’s operating principle. “The heat inside the reactor breaks down the waste gases and, depending on their chemical composition, various reactions take place. In the subsequent scrubbing stage, gaseous and solid compounds generated by this process are absorbed and cooled down by a suitable scrubbing liquid.” Afterwards, the waste gases are cooled and cleaned, and can be released through the roof without any concern.According to DAS, SPRUCE has been designed with a small footprint, and requires low maintenance and a low cost of ownership. The waste gas abatement takes place without burning. Due to its small footprint, the equipment can be either installed in the fabricator’s basement or in direct vicinity of the CVD system itself.“SPRUCE is characterised by its low cost of ownership and high level system availability”, says Davies. The system has an integrated cleansing mechanism inside the reactor and the equipment can easily be integrated into a monitoring network. For applications that require near 100% system availability, DAS has developed SPRUCE DUO. The variant of SPRUCE features two reactor/scrubbing systems which can work parallel to each other. In the event of maintenance on one of the systems, the other takes over the entire waste gas treatment.
Waste gas solutions
German environmental technology company DAS Environmental Expert GmbH is headquartered in Dresden. Founded in 1991, the company is a technology and system provider of process waste gas abatement solutions for semiconductor, TFT and LED/OLED display industries, as well as the photovoltaic industry. The company also develops process and system solutions for the treatment of industrial and municipal wastewaters.
