Determination of carbon in trichlorosilane by metastable transfer emission spectrometry

The detection limit for carbon impurities in liquid trichlorosilane has been lowered to 3 ppb, an order of magnitude improvement over previous techniques, by use of metastable transfer emission spectrometry (MTES). The technique described here is rapid, requires little sample preparation, and is tolerant of harsh environments and hence, should be readily adaptable for on-line process control. 15 references, 2 tables.