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Gallium goes green, thanks to recapture metals inc.
Gallium Goes Green, Thanks to Recaj)ture M e t a l s Inc. by Jo Ann McDonald, US Correspondent In the tiny American town of Blanding, Utah, three environmental champions recycle the vast majority of the world's supply of used gallium, and they're doing a booming business.
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ete Black, William Hurst and Dale Slade recycled a total of 9.2 tons of gallium in 1993 out of their modest 5000 square foot facility, see photo, located on four acres of some of the most beautiful land in the Utah countryside. The recycled material, which the company purifies up to the "seven nines" category as described below, now accounts for a significant portion of the world's total gallium supply. The company also reclaims but does not purify arsenic, and can handle aluminum from discarded A1GaAs and the like, but doesn't deal in indium nor phosphide, nor the other exotics which haven't reached as lucrative volumes as gallium. Recapture Metals is a successful business devoted to turning what could be regarded as hazardous waste into important reusable material. Their conscientious efforts, along with key customers such as Crystal Specialties, Litton Airtron, M-A/ COM, Laser Diode, and American Crystal Technologies, which make up a p p r o x i m a t e l y half o f R e c a p t u r e Metals business, definitely represent the wave of the future as the world focuses more and more on recycling its electronic starting materials rather than wasting them. The other half of their business is in recycling for the major international virgin gallium producers.
From modest beginnings with consistent purity Pete Black, a CPA, provides the business expertise for the company and serves as its president. William Hurst's specialty is electronics, and Dale Slade is the chemist. They worked together at C a n y o n l a n d s prior to that c o m p a n y ' s demise, along with so many other suppliers that spent more than they earned in the precarious 1985 timeframe, when the GaAs business was thoroughly hyped and many producers, users, and recyclers were driven out of business. After the Canyonlands ex-
096'1290' 700 4''994E's*vie*ScienceLtdPaoe2 I IVo7No2
perience, the three men decided to start their own bootstrap operation and make it a pay as they go operation. The strategy obviously worked, and Recapture Metals has grown slowly, steadily, and sensibly ever since. "Time in business" is a strong point in the field right now and, whereas some customers have been trying Eastern European gallium where the quality varies from quite good to poor, Recapture Metals has attained a well-earned reputation for consistent product purity and their prices have held steady for the last 2-3 years. Purity levels have now reached what is referred to as "seven nines," or 99.99999% (less than 1/10 ppm
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Importance of recycling
I
II
,IF "I
An important service to the cause o] recycling would be for any purchaser~ or manufacturers, anywhere along the electronic foodchain, tt, question the people at the back dooi of a fab as to whether or not they're recycling their used or scrap material f h e r e ' s mone\. in that gallium and. by repeated customer encouragement, companies may well start to see the profit in their previous waste. As Dr. Slade note~, "gallium is gallium." Although there was an initial stigma attached to the recycled material, most material people no\\ realize that virgin material is actually less pure at the beginning, since it's laced generously ~\ith dirt. As the nunlbers o[" converts increase, so does the recycling eflk)rt. "We have practically doubled our sales every year l\)r the last six years." says Dr. Slade. A~ word continues to spread, Recapture Metals is very likely' to become T H E major recycle facility' for gallium in the world, growing steadily and continually, as they' have since 1986.
Gallium recycling compared to arsenic
impurity) which Recapture Metals sells for about $350 per kilo. Most recycled material on the market is at the lesser "four nines" level (99.99%) which finds its way to "major virgin producers" who in turn use a fractional c r y s t a l l i z a t i o n m e t h o d of further purification to upgrade the material for resale to their customers. R e c a p t u r e sells the " f o u r nines" material for about $200 per kilo, and the next m o r e pure "six nines" (99.9999%) is priced about $300 per kilo. The purity is measured by the R R R (Residual Resistivity Ratio) measurement method used as a standard by gallium producers, as well as by the emissions spectrograph method. Recapture Metals periodically sends
samples of its product to the National Research Council in Canada for a glow discharge mass spec analysis. Although there are other sampling companies, N R C is generally regarded now as the industry standard. One of the problems pertaining to purity has been the ability to analyze the material. Within just the last few years, that capability has been perfected such that seven nines material can be reliably measured. Essentially, the highest purity seven nines material equates to a better overall profit margin, although it is clearly the most difficult to attain. Another rule of thumb worth note is that approximately 10% of the total cost of a finished GaAs starting wafer is the gallium itself.
As stated above, Recapture Metals is primarily interested in gallium but it will deal with arsenic as well and, as we are well aware, GaAs waters are half gallium and half arsenic. Whereas gallium is fairly benign. arsenic has to be treated especially carefully, "but in the metallic form, the arsenide is at its safest, and that's the form we handle," says Dr. Slade. How the company separates the two is proprietary, however. "We don't purify arsenic and sell it as a pure product. We just recover it as metallic arsenic, then sell it to others who recycle it mostly into alloys which are used with lead in products such as batteries." Although G a A s isn't nearly as bad as people may assume from its name. it falls under the category of arsenical compounds, and any compound that has arsenic in it is considered to be dangerous. "Gallium itself has never shown any toxicity or created any problem for us, so once we separate it from the arsenic, it's considered perfectly safe. On the other hand, we always handle arsenic as a hazardous material." explains Slade. State and
L~ou probably didn't know that SOFIE Instruments has the greatest experience worldwide in endpoint detection & analytical techniques for III-V processing. SOFIE
INSTRUMENTS
OPTICAL EMISSION Sofie (UK) Ltd 11 AvonPea Road, Sale, Cheshire. M33 4HY Tel. 061 962 3857 Fax. 061 976 6330
-
We just thought we would tell you, so that when you are having problems etching those complex structures in a controlled way, you know where to come to optimise your process.
Control through Information
SPECTROSCOPY
- INTERFEROMETRY - ELLIPSOMETRY
Sofie Instruments 7, Route d'Egly, 91290 Arpajon, France Tel. 1 64 90 93 65 Fax. 1 60 83 91 83
L.O.T - ORIEL GmbH Im Tiefen See 58, D - 64293 Darmstadt, Germany Tel. 0 61 51/88 06-56 Fax. 0 61 51/8 41 73
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thoughl it was an cal:,5 x~a,> Its be rid of the problem. If it t~a~ something x~c didn't \'~ant. we'd .iu>t ~cnt it back l,, them ll's Io their adv~lntagc to kccp thing,~ ~ell separatcd~ diid thc pcopic we deal \~ith have become educated to, line pc)inl nt)~,% w h o r e illOSI is} them undersland that." c o u n t y offices of e n v i r o n m e n t a l health w.ork closely with Recapture Metals and the company has had few problems. In fact, "the environmental people have been really good to work with." Slade reports.
Hardardous material, not hazardous waste This is recyclable material, N O ~ hazardous wasie...an entirely different proposition compared to the problems faced today by toxic waste sites. Once it's on its way to Recapturc Metals, both the gallium and the arsenic is no longer a problem for anyone, for it's reprocessed rather than discarded. Once the recycled gallium is purified, it can be resold
back into the electronic I\~odchain for reuse. For those unfamiliar with the product, gallium melts at 29.5 C (85:F). and it looks much like m e r c u r y . Recapture Metals packages the purified gallium in plastic bottles and fleezes them. then ships the bottles frozen it) their customers. which is the industry standard method of handling the material. The largest container used lk)r the four nines product holds two kilos of material and, m the high purity seven nines form. it's normally a one kilo or 500 gram container or 100 gram ingots. " w h a t e v e r the c u s t o m e r wants." underscores Slade. The arsenic, on the other hand. is always treated as a poison at every step of the
1,
R<::EV I ~ Wl[
The problem with phosphide The phosphide is a ~;eriotis problem because it becomes a very flammable and toKic material, and Recapture Metals simply doesn't want to deal with it at this point in their operation. "We haxc talked about getting into phosphide and we know how to work w'ith it but, at this point, the volume doesnt justif.~, the capital expenditures to do it and our presenl equipment won't handle the p h o s phide \xithout it being a real hazard." cxplams [)~ Slade. If arid when the volume c,l [nP or (}alriP, etc~. gets to the point where its lucratl\c to handle, however, you can bei that Recapture Metals will deal v~ittl it, and deal w~th it correctly. recapturing it and recycling it back into the electronic foodchain. Recapture Metals intends to become the major electronic materials recycling facility in the world. As the electronics industr b becomes more aware of their activities and the benefits of reclaiming useful materials instead of throwing them awa\. Recapture Metals ~ill continue the steady growth and quality reputation they have already earned for man> years to come. ('otma t I1. Dulc Sludc, Recapture Melal.~, Inc. Harriv Lain'. 102-7 Blandine, ~ lah 84511, {'SA. T e l / 11 f a'O! ,, b;01'676-2734 I-ax; / l / ,k'Ol ; <~01/67~-327~
p
ete Black, William Hurst and Dale Slade recycled a total of 9.2 tons of gallium in 1993 out of their modest 5000 square foot facility, see photo, located on four acres of some of the most beautiful land in the Utah countryside. The recycled material, which the company purifies up to the "seven nines" category as described below, now accounts for a significant portion of the world's total gallium supply. The company also reclaims but does not purify arsenic, and can handle aluminum from discarded A1GaAs and the like, but doesn't deal in indium nor phosphide, nor the other exotics which haven't reached as lucrative volumes as gallium. Recapture Metals is a successful business devoted to turning what could be regarded as hazardous waste into important reusable material. Their conscientious efforts, along with key customers such as Crystal Specialties, Litton Airtron, M-A/ COM, Laser Diode, and American Crystal Technologies, which make up a p p r o x i m a t e l y half o f R e c a p t u r e Metals business, definitely represent the wave of the future as the world focuses more and more on recycling its electronic starting materials rather than wasting them. The other half of their business is in recycling for the major international virgin gallium producers.
From modest beginnings with consistent purity Pete Black, a CPA, provides the business expertise for the company and serves as its president. William Hurst's specialty is electronics, and Dale Slade is the chemist. They worked together at C a n y o n l a n d s prior to that c o m p a n y ' s demise, along with so many other suppliers that spent more than they earned in the precarious 1985 timeframe, when the GaAs business was thoroughly hyped and many producers, users, and recyclers were driven out of business. After the Canyonlands ex-
096'1290' 700 4''994E's*vie*ScienceLtdPaoe2 I IVo7No2
perience, the three men decided to start their own bootstrap operation and make it a pay as they go operation. The strategy obviously worked, and Recapture Metals has grown slowly, steadily, and sensibly ever since. "Time in business" is a strong point in the field right now and, whereas some customers have been trying Eastern European gallium where the quality varies from quite good to poor, Recapture Metals has attained a well-earned reputation for consistent product purity and their prices have held steady for the last 2-3 years. Purity levels have now reached what is referred to as "seven nines," or 99.99999% (less than 1/10 ppm
::ii~ii~ii~i{{}{{{{{iNi~{{{Niii~iN~i{!i{Ni{N{{{i{~#i®{ii{~iN~ii{~ii{~i~ ~,~iii~,ii::
:::::::::::::::::::::
: !ili~!!!i!iY!:!:!!!!;!i!!i!!!!!!~!!!¢!!!!:i:~i:~' i!~ii~iiiii}iiiii~iii! iT!ii~i i:!
i
i i:!
{{ :.!:. { ::{{:.}i::iiii!i!7){
Importance of recycling
I
II
,IF "I
An important service to the cause o] recycling would be for any purchaser~ or manufacturers, anywhere along the electronic foodchain, tt, question the people at the back dooi of a fab as to whether or not they're recycling their used or scrap material f h e r e ' s mone\. in that gallium and. by repeated customer encouragement, companies may well start to see the profit in their previous waste. As Dr. Slade note~, "gallium is gallium." Although there was an initial stigma attached to the recycled material, most material people no\\ realize that virgin material is actually less pure at the beginning, since it's laced generously ~\ith dirt. As the nunlbers o[" converts increase, so does the recycling eflk)rt. "We have practically doubled our sales every year l\)r the last six years." says Dr. Slade. A~ word continues to spread, Recapture Metals is very likely' to become T H E major recycle facility' for gallium in the world, growing steadily and continually, as they' have since 1986.
Gallium recycling compared to arsenic
impurity) which Recapture Metals sells for about $350 per kilo. Most recycled material on the market is at the lesser "four nines" level (99.99%) which finds its way to "major virgin producers" who in turn use a fractional c r y s t a l l i z a t i o n m e t h o d of further purification to upgrade the material for resale to their customers. R e c a p t u r e sells the " f o u r nines" material for about $200 per kilo, and the next m o r e pure "six nines" (99.9999%) is priced about $300 per kilo. The purity is measured by the R R R (Residual Resistivity Ratio) measurement method used as a standard by gallium producers, as well as by the emissions spectrograph method. Recapture Metals periodically sends
samples of its product to the National Research Council in Canada for a glow discharge mass spec analysis. Although there are other sampling companies, N R C is generally regarded now as the industry standard. One of the problems pertaining to purity has been the ability to analyze the material. Within just the last few years, that capability has been perfected such that seven nines material can be reliably measured. Essentially, the highest purity seven nines material equates to a better overall profit margin, although it is clearly the most difficult to attain. Another rule of thumb worth note is that approximately 10% of the total cost of a finished GaAs starting wafer is the gallium itself.
As stated above, Recapture Metals is primarily interested in gallium but it will deal with arsenic as well and, as we are well aware, GaAs waters are half gallium and half arsenic. Whereas gallium is fairly benign. arsenic has to be treated especially carefully, "but in the metallic form, the arsenide is at its safest, and that's the form we handle," says Dr. Slade. How the company separates the two is proprietary, however. "We don't purify arsenic and sell it as a pure product. We just recover it as metallic arsenic, then sell it to others who recycle it mostly into alloys which are used with lead in products such as batteries." Although G a A s isn't nearly as bad as people may assume from its name. it falls under the category of arsenical compounds, and any compound that has arsenic in it is considered to be dangerous. "Gallium itself has never shown any toxicity or created any problem for us, so once we separate it from the arsenic, it's considered perfectly safe. On the other hand, we always handle arsenic as a hazardous material." explains Slade. State and
L~ou probably didn't know that SOFIE Instruments has the greatest experience worldwide in endpoint detection & analytical techniques for III-V processing. SOFIE
INSTRUMENTS
OPTICAL EMISSION Sofie (UK) Ltd 11 AvonPea Road, Sale, Cheshire. M33 4HY Tel. 061 962 3857 Fax. 061 976 6330
-
We just thought we would tell you, so that when you are having problems etching those complex structures in a controlled way, you know where to come to optimise your process.
Control through Information
SPECTROSCOPY
- INTERFEROMETRY - ELLIPSOMETRY
Sofie Instruments 7, Route d'Egly, 91290 Arpajon, France Tel. 1 64 90 93 65 Fax. 1 60 83 91 83
L.O.T - ORIEL GmbH Im Tiefen See 58, D - 64293 Darmstadt, Germany Tel. 0 61 51/88 06-56 Fax. 0 61 51/8 41 73
~7~7~7~{~{~77~{{~7~{~7~{{~{~{{~7~{~7~7~{77~77~{7~{~7~ '~i~!~i~ ¸¸:
:~'~ ~" ~:~ ~
~',~' '~
'
~ ~:'
~'~' ~'~
~i!~iii~~ 7 ~ { ~ 7 ~ 7 ~ 7 ~ { ~ ~ { ~ 7 ~
operation,
11
lrtn~
receipt
el
¸
{ h e ttLi,t';.
material to resale ~i Ihc product Thc kex i,~l- (h, ilialltll~.i
matcr{:_i!
;ill{{ t h e \
thoughl it was an cal:,5 x~a,> Its be rid of the problem. If it t~a~ something x~c didn't \'~ant. we'd .iu>t ~cnt it back l,, them ll's Io their adv~lntagc to kccp thing,~ ~ell separatcd~ diid thc pcopic we deal \~ith have become educated to, line pc)inl nt)~,% w h o r e illOSI is} them undersland that." c o u n t y offices of e n v i r o n m e n t a l health w.ork closely with Recapture Metals and the company has had few problems. In fact, "the environmental people have been really good to work with." Slade reports.
Hardardous material, not hazardous waste This is recyclable material, N O ~ hazardous wasie...an entirely different proposition compared to the problems faced today by toxic waste sites. Once it's on its way to Recapturc Metals, both the gallium and the arsenic is no longer a problem for anyone, for it's reprocessed rather than discarded. Once the recycled gallium is purified, it can be resold
back into the electronic I\~odchain for reuse. For those unfamiliar with the product, gallium melts at 29.5 C (85:F). and it looks much like m e r c u r y . Recapture Metals packages the purified gallium in plastic bottles and fleezes them. then ships the bottles frozen it) their customers. which is the industry standard method of handling the material. The largest container used lk)r the four nines product holds two kilos of material and, m the high purity seven nines form. it's normally a one kilo or 500 gram container or 100 gram ingots. " w h a t e v e r the c u s t o m e r wants." underscores Slade. The arsenic, on the other hand. is always treated as a poison at every step of the
1,
R<::EV I ~ Wl[
The problem with phosphide The phosphide is a ~;eriotis problem because it becomes a very flammable and toKic material, and Recapture Metals simply doesn't want to deal with it at this point in their operation. "We haxc talked about getting into phosphide and we know how to work w'ith it but, at this point, the volume doesnt justif.~, the capital expenditures to do it and our presenl equipment won't handle the p h o s phide \xithout it being a real hazard." cxplams [)~ Slade. If arid when the volume c,l [nP or (}alriP, etc~. gets to the point where its lucratl\c to handle, however, you can bei that Recapture Metals will deal v~ittl it, and deal w~th it correctly. recapturing it and recycling it back into the electronic foodchain. Recapture Metals intends to become the major electronic materials recycling facility in the world. As the electronics industr b becomes more aware of their activities and the benefits of reclaiming useful materials instead of throwing them awa\. Recapture Metals ~ill continue the steady growth and quality reputation they have already earned for man> years to come. ('otma t I1. Dulc Sludc, Recapture Melal.~, Inc. Harriv Lain'. 102-7 Blandine, ~ lah 84511, {'SA. T e l / 11 f a'O! ,, b;01'676-2734 I-ax; / l / ,k'Ol ; <~01/67~-327~