As semiconductor features shrink, removing heat without adding to the environmental burden is becoming harder. A different approach is now moving towards commercial use.
As semiconductor manufacturers work with increasingly intricate chip patterns, keeping etching processes at the required temperatures is becoming more demanding. The heat generated during these processes needs to be removed using cooling fluids at around -100°C.
The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials have developed a chiller for industry that can provide 15kW of cooling at up to -120C.
This provides manufacturers with scalable cryogenic cooling and an environmentally friendly refrigerant with zero GWP. Nitrogen is used as the refrigerant, rather than the traditional high GWP refrigerants commonly used in vapour compression chillers. The system can also operate at pressures of 10 atmospheres or lower.
This technology has now moved past the lab stage and has been handed over to CHAGO ENGINEERING, a Semiconductor chiller manufacturer based in South Korea. They aim to launch the product in 2027, building upon the KIMMs demonstration of over 10kW cooling at -100C in 2024.
The Turbo-Brayton system creates cooling by compressing and expanding Nitrogen. Oil free turbomachinery operating on Magnetic bearings prevents freezing of the lubricating oil. The chiller operates at 60,000 RPM and has dimensions of 1.6m x 1.6m x 2.1m. The system was able to reach -120 degrees Celsius or lower in 30 minutes. It achieved the desired 15kW cooling load in 1 hour, using 90kW of electrical energy.
“Our researchers have been working to develop this technology with the aim of bringing it to market since we set our sights on creating an industrial chiller in 2024. We will continue to develop new industrial cryogenic cooling technologies that can be applied to semiconductor manufacturing and many exciting new industries.” says Dr Junseok Ko, Head of Department of Energy Storage Systems, KIMM.
Since 2018 the institute has been researching Turbo-Brayton cooling. They have created industrial cooling at -200C and aims to create -250C and -269C cooling for superconductivity, space, hydrogen, quantum and nuclear fusion.
