Multistage Heat Exchanger for Cooling Semiconductor Effluent
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional abatement systems for semiconductor processes using water vapor in remote plasma sources face issues with solid particle formation and elevated exhaust temperatures, leading to inefficient and bulky cooling solutions with maintenance challenges.
Innovation Solution
A heat exchanger with a design featuring a central channel and radial channels, optimized for efficient cooling through a multi-stage cross-flow path and sequential deposition of thermally conductive materials, allowing for compact and efficient recombination and cooling of effluent gases.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If water vapor is used as reagent in remote plasma source, then destruction removal efficiency is improved, but solid particle formation occurs and exhaust temperature increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling system is segmented into multiple independent channels (central channel and multiple radial channels) that are distributed throughout the heat exchanger. This segmentation allows for staged cooling of the effluent, where different regions can cool different portions of the flow simultaneously, effectively reducing exhaust temperature without creating solid particles.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from conventional single-stage cooling to a multi-dimensional cooling architecture with radial channels extending outward from a central channel. This spatial arrangement in multiple dimensions increases the heat exchanging surface area and improves cooling efficiency while maintaining a compact form factor.
2Temperature
If conventional cooling solutions are used, then exhaust temperature is reduced, but device size becomes bulky and maintenance issues increase
Solution Approach 1:
The radial channels are nested within the heat exchanger structure, with multiple channels arranged concentrically around a central channel. This nested configuration allows the cooling system to achieve high cooling efficiency in a compact, space-efficient manner, eliminating the need for bulky conventional cooling solutions.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention combines multiple cooling channels (central and radial) into a single integrated heat exchanger unit. This merging of cooling functions into one compact device reduces overall system size and complexity while improving cooling efficiency through increased heat exchanging surface area.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The heat exchanger effectively cools the effluent, preventing damage to downstream equipment and increasing tool uptime by efficiently managing temperature and particle collection, while reducing maintenance needs and costs.
Implementation Method 1
a heat exchanging surface to cool the effluent
Implementation Method 2
sequential deposition of thermally conductive materials
Data Source
AI summary
A heat exchanger for abating compounds produced in semiconductor processes is presented. When hot effluent flows into the heat exchanger, a coolant can be flowed to walls of a fluid heat exchanging surface within the heat exchanger. The heat exchanging surface can include a plurality of channel regions which creates a multi stage cross flow path for the hot effluent to flow down the heat exchanger. This flow path forces the hot effluent to hit the cold walls of the fluid heat exchanging surface, significantly cooling the effluent and preventing it from flowing directly into the vacuum pumps and causing heat damage. The heat exchanger can be created by sequentially depositing layers of thermally conductive material on surfaces using 3-D printing, creating a much smaller footprint and reducing costs.