Gas recovery system ArgonØ ™

vacuum

The ArgonØ ™ recycles gas in a closed loop from a limited number of process tools, this gives the big advantage over potential plant wide installations of easy, straightforward retrofit into existing wafer manufacturing plants as well as allowing a phased installation, in line with the process tools, into new “ground up” facilities. The ArgonØ ™ recycles >95% of the furnace exhaust gas back to the process at purity levels that exceed the Semi PV6-1110 requirements, removing 1,000s of ppm of contamination in the process. The ArgonØ ™ is designed to recover, purify and recycle purge gas from the vacuum furnaces, both CZ and DS, used to grow silicon ingots for onward fabrication into crystalline solar cells. The system uniquely copes with both oil sealed and dry vacuum pumps, used to evacuate the furnaces, and utilises technology jointly developed with Cambridge University that enables recycle rates of at least 95%. Recycled Argon gas purity exceeds SEMI PV6-1110. The system is Point of Use and can connect to multiple vacuum furnaces, subject to a maximum recycle flow limit of approximately 15 Nm3/hr, enabling straightforward retrofit to current vacuum furnaces along with a phased installation, in line with the installation of the vacuum furnaces, in new establishments. With a Return on Investment (ROI) of 2-3 years the ArgonØ ™ represents excellent value for money and where helium is also recycled the ROI improves further to typically 6-12 months. In addition the ArgonØ ™ reduces the CO2 footprint of a typical vacuum furnace by 3-5 tonnes per annum along with improvements to the security of supply.