Semiconductor equipment

Standards for food-grade chemicals in the United States are set by the Committee on Eood Chemicals Codex of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) which pubHshes them in the Food Chemicals Codex (ECC) (6) (see also Eood additives). Standards for laboratory reagents are set by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Committee on Analytical Reagents and are pubHshed in Feagent Chemicals—A.CS Specifications (7). Standards for electronic-grade chemicals, which have extremely low limits for trace ions, are pubHshed aimually in The Book of SEMI Standards (BOSS) by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) (8). 

In 1973 the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute (SEMI) held its first standards meeting. SEMI standards are voluntary consensus specifications developed by the producers, users, and general interest groups in the semiconductor (qv) industry. Examples of electronic chemicals are glacial acetic acid [64-19-7] acetone [67-64-17, ammonium fluoride [12125-01 -8] and ammonium hydroxide [1336-21 -6] (see Ammonium compounds), dichloromethane [75-09-2] (see Cm.OROCARBONSANDcm.OROHYDROCARBONs), hydrofluoric acid [7664-39-3] (see Eluorine compounds, inorganic), 30% hydrogen peroxide (qv) [7722-84-1] methanol (qv) [67-56-1] nitric acid (qv) [7697-37-2] 2-propanoI [67-63-0] (see Propyl alcohols), sulfuric acid [7664-93-9] tetrachloroethane [127-18-4] toluene (qv) [108-88-3] and xylenes (qv) (see also Electronic materials). 

The Book ofiSEMI Standards, Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, Mountain View, Calif., 1993. 

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, SEMI Standards E 45. 

The Cluster Tool Concept. A recent trend in semiconductor equipment is the integration of two or more functions, such as CVD, PVD, etching, stripping, or rapid thermal processing, in one piece of equipment the so-called cluster tool. A continuous vacuum can be maintained, a feature which reduces the handling and contamination problems, increases the overall throughput, improves the process control, and generally lowers the cost. 

TABLE 4.3 Installation Record for Focused Ion Beam Instruments Made by JEOL Semiconductor Equipment Division Instrument Number Customer ... 

Method 1 is quick but contaminates the samples with Ga and In, which usually prohibits further processing with standard semiconductor equipment. The same... 

There has been considerable interest in the determination of ions at trace levels as, for example, in applications need high-purity water as in semiconductor processing and the determination of trace anions in amine treated waters. For this investigation, we will define "trace" as determinations at or below 1 pg/1 (ppb) levels. The Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) recommended the use of IC for tracking trace ionic contaminants from 0.025 to 0.5 pg/1 [18]. In addition, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has established IC as the analytical technique for determining of trace level concentrations of sodium, chloride and sulfate down to 0.25 pg/1 in power plant water [19]. 

Most companies producing ICs today have been quite lax in the quality control of the liquid chemicals used in their processes. These chemicals include acids, bases, buffered etches, photoresists, and organic solvents. Essentially, the producers of ICs have left the quality control of these materials to the chemical manufacturers. Specifications for chemicals are set by SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers International) and are generally met by all chemical manufacturers. The level of metallic contaminations that can exist in U.S. chemicals ranges from 0.1 to 1 ppm. If the levels of metallic impurities were actually this high, U.S. manufacturers would not be able to produce integrated circuits. 

BOC is the most diverse industrial gases company. Its key markets are the UK, USA, Australia, and South Africa. It is also the leading company in Asia with about one-quarter of the market. Other company activities include semiconductor equipment and distribution services. 

Frequency converters are available with both air as well as water cooling. Given the same semiconductor equipment, higher outputs are sometimes specified with water cooling, as that is the more effective cooling method. 

Fig. 15.5. Boron beam current specifications versus energy over numerous implanter generations from Eaton Semiconductor Equipment/Axcelis Technologies, spanning 25 years NV-10 (1978) GSD-200 (1993) GSD-200/E2 (1997) and GSD Ultra (2004)...

The compound semiconductor equipment market, while small compared to the Si-equipment market, is extremely competitive and volatile. Several equipment manufacturing companies have explored and subsequently exited the market. Presently the... 

Semiconductor Equipment and Materitils International (SEMI) (1997), SEMI International Standards, SEMI, Mt View, CA. 

Semiautonomous organizational units, 315-317 Semiconductor Equipment and Materials... 

Moore D, Studley G. Reworking underfilled flip-chips. Semiconductor Equipment Corp. Moorpark, CA, www.flipchips.com/tutarial08.html. May 2(X)1. 

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) A Guide for Continuous Improvement for the Semiconductor Equipment Industry. Sematech. 1992. At http //www.se-matech.org. 

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