PLASMA ABATEMENT OF COMPOUNDS CONTAINING HEAVY ATOMS

A plasma abatement process for abating effluent containing compounds from a processing chamber is described. A plasma abatement process takes gaseous foreline effluent from a processing chamber, such as a deposition chamber, and reacts the effluent within a plasma chamber placed in the foreline path. The plasma dissociates the compounds within the effluent, converting the effluent into more benign compounds. Abating reagents may assist in the abating of the compounds. The abatement process may be a volatizing or a condensing abatement process. Representative volatilizing abating reagents include, for example, CH4, H2O, H2, NF3, SF6, F2, HCl, HF, Cl2, and HBr. Representative condensing abating reagents include, for example, H2, H2O, O2, N2, O3, CO, CO2, NH3, N2O, CH4, and combinations thereof.