Hazardous Waste Concerns & Solutions in a Microelectronics Laboratory

Microelectronic labs create some common classes of hazardous waste from solutions such as piranha etch, RCA cleans, etc. Safely handling these solutions while complying with EPA hazardous waste regulations can be a challenge. This presentation will briefly cover some of the regulations dealing with these issues and how the Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF) has worked to follow them. Over the years, various incidents have occurred that have lead to the CNF developing some unique solutions to a few of these problems commonly facing labs handling this type of waste. An overview of some of these incidents will be presented, along with the solutions developed to mitigate future risk.