Recycle for supercritical carbon dioxide

Abstract

A method and a system for supplying a carbon dioxide fluid feed from a carbon dioxide purifying means to one or more applications. The feed is combined with contaminants at the applications to form an effluent, and at least one effluent is returned to the purifying means for recycling the carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide from a carbon dioxide source is combined with the carbon dioxide of the system so that the purity of the carbon dioxide from the source is upgraded prior to the applications.

Description

[0001] related application [0002] This application claims priority to US Provisional Application No. 60 / 330,150, filed October 17, 2001, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. This application also claims U.S. Provisional Application Nos. 60 / 330,203, filed October 17, 2001, and U.S. Provisional Application Nos. 60 / 350,688, filed January 22, 2002, and 60 / 358,065, filed February 19, 2002. Priority, all of these applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Background of the invention [0003] The fabrication of integrated circuits typically involves a large number of discrete steps performed on a wafer. Typical steps include deposition or growth of thin films, patterning and etching of wiring on the wafer using photolithography. These steps are performed multiple times to build the desired circuit. Other process steps may include ion implantation, chemical or mechanical planarization and percolation. To perform these steps...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Moreover, if the supercritical carbon dioxide process is widely used in the semiconductor industry, the consumption cannot be economically viable to rely entirely on the available carbon dioxide

[0006] However, the prior art does not point to a system or method that can solve these problems

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