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A Complete Waste Gas Disposal System
By combining several processes in a single unit, the ESCAPE gas treatment system provides cost-effective and safe disposal of waste and hazardous gases, for the semiconductor and chemical industries.
The microelectronics industry produces a number of waste and hazardous gases in its various manufacturing processes. Developed through the ADAPT project, the ESCAPE waste gas abatement system uses a superior design concept to provide an optimal gas disposal solution. By combining incineration and scrubbing in a single unit, used where the waste gases are produced, the system is highly cost-effective with very high safety levels. Targeted at the semiconductor industry, ESCAPE is also currently being evaluated successfully for the chemical industry.
Currently five to ten new fabs are expected to start construction worldwide every year and with each potentially using from 50 to 100 ESCAPE systems, the market potential is very large. Moreover, an estimated one half of the 200 existing fabs are expected to upgrade over the next 5 years, making retrofits another a major market. With the cost of fabs so high, controlling costs is a major issue and the high efficiency and cost effectiveness of ESCAPE gives it a significant advantage over competitive systems. DAS customers have obtained tremendous cost reductions with this system; it also complies with all governmental regulations and is TÜV approved, ensuring safety for workers and environment alike.
ESCAPE combines sophisticated combustion reactions with oxidation, hydrolysis, absorption and adsorption techniques. Waste gas is fed into the centre of a rotationally symmetrical burner chamber, where the components in the gas are thermally 
fragmented and depending on chemical composition, reactions such as oxidation, reduction and pyrolysis take place in the ring-shaped flame. The gaseous and solid radicals are then absorbed by the scrubbing liquid or are taken in suspension. As well as having an incinerator and scrubber in the same module, ESCAPE uses a multiple sensor-based monitoring system to provide information continuously on operating conditions. ESCAPE treats waste gases from a variety of processes such as Low Pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition (LPCVD), Pressure Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD), Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition (APCVD), plasma etching and epitaxy, and DAS has addressed in detail some critical semiconductor processes including treatment of Chlorine based chemistries and WF6 used for etching and deposition.
There are currently nearly 200 ESCAPE systems operating worldwide in a variety of semiconductor manufacturing facilities, including Texas Instruments, SIMEC, Philips and Bosch sites. Besides semiconductor applications, there is also an ESCAPE system being used by a chemicals manufacturer to empty gas cylinders. The ESCAPE system is manufactured and actively marketed by DAS.
tel +49-351-4734-8688 --- fax +49-351-4734-8726
Research Area Technology and Components for Subsystems
Project ADAPT
Keywords pollution control; semi-conductor manufacture; waste-gas disposal apparatus;
| Project Participants | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AEA Harwell Laboratory UK | |||
| Bronkhorst High-Tech BV NL | |||
| Dünnschicht Anlagen Systeme GmbH DE | |||
| Fraunhofer-IFT DE | |||
| Fraunhofer-IIS DE | |||
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This page was last updated on 22 November 1996, and is maintained by esprit@dg3.cec.be