Dear Colleague, We've used BCl3 on one of our RIE machines for some months. Just recently we needed to disassemble the vacuum pump (rotary pump) and discovered that the exhaust port is clogged with some powderish stuff that I assume is boronoxide of some form. I think I've heard that BCl3 will react with oxygen in the air to create some oxide, and now I wonder how to prevent this happening in the future. Currently, the exhaust is going through pipe work and a fan to the top of the roof. (pollution? Yes, but the amount is very limited as this is R&D). Is there any other ways of taking care of this than buying an expensive scrubber? When this reaction happens so fast that I can't even get the gas out of the pump before it reacts, how can I be sure that a scrubber unit will help? Best regards, Erik Poppe _________________________________________________________________ Erik Poppe, Ph.D. student at Dept. of Physical Electronics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology email: Erik.Poppe@fysel.ntnu.no phone: (+47) 73 59 02 09 fax: (+47) 73 59 14 41 Address: Dept. of Physical Electronics O.S. Bragstadpl. 2 N-7491 TRONDHEIM Norway WWW: http://www.fysel.ntnu.no/~erikp