A review of uses, environmental hazards and recovery/recycle technologies of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) emissions from the semiconductor manufacturing processes

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are being used as etching/cleaning gases in microelectronic or semiconductor manufacturing processes. These compounds under industrial uses mainly include CF4 (tetrafluorocarbon), C2F6 (hexafluoroethane), C3F8 (octafluoropropane), and cyclo-C4F8 or c-C4F8 (octafluorocyclobutane). From the globally environmental issues and regulatory points of view, it is urgent to control the emissions of these significant greenhouse gases from the industrial processes. This article reviews these PFCs in terms of physiochemical properties, industrial uses, and environmental hazards (e.g. global warming, and toxicity and exposure hazards). Further, it addresses some available recovery/recycle technologies (i.e. cryogenic condensation/distillation, pressure swing adsorption, and membrane separation) of process exhaust gases containing PFCs from semiconductor manufacturing processes in this review paper. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.