Chemical Hazards in Semiconductor Operations

Key to the understanding of environmental, health and safety issues in the semiconductor industry i s an understanding ofthe chemicals used in the manufacture and packaging of semiconductors and semiconductor related technologies. Chapters, Chemical Hazards in Semiconductor Operations, co-authored by Tom Hawkinson and Daryl Korpela offers an overview ofthe types of ehemieals used in the semiconductor industry as well as the related processes. 

Chemical Hazards in Semiconductor Operations 189 Table 1. Semiconductor Chemical Hazards... 

In addition to varying in costs, the chemical composition of the water provided from the mains supply also varies between the water companies, as may that between independent supplies within each company s area. The current criterion on potable water quality requires it to be wholesome i.e. it should not create a health hazard, with relatively wide limits on particular constituents. The cost of removing these constituents (e.g. calcium, magnesium, chlorides, iron and silica) increases with concentration and variability. This imposes a cost burden on, for example, the semiconductor and electronic component industries and on the operation of high-pressure boilers. Therefore both the potential cost of metered water supply and the chemical composition of the supply waters may influence future decisions on the water company s area in which an industry may wish to locate. 

The complexity and variety of chemical operations performed in the semiconductor industry (as detailed in Table 7) makes scientifically precise glove selection extremely difficult. Generally, the most hazardous material that may be encoimtered is used to define minimum CP glove selection, with unusual property materials being factored in any final selection. Even more difficult is defining a set of workable procedures for specific change out frequencies for gloves based on a combination of skin contact hazard... 

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