Monitoring & Measurement control In Semiconductor Industry Application

Wafer Quality In Photolithography

Wafer manufacture requires a highly controlled environment and precise data on the manufacturing environment. These essential elements enable both high accuracy and high speed of the circuit pattern exposure on the wafer surface. Integrated circuit pattern quality in semiconductor manufacturing depends on the stepper conditions. Enhance precision air conditioning and wafer stepper process capacity with accurate air pressure, temperature, and humidity measurement.

Vaisala sensor technology is designed for precisely these kinds of demanding conditions – BAROCAP®, HUMICAP®, and DRYCAP® sensor technologies ensure superior accuracy, longterm stability, and rapid response time. Furthermore, Vaisala has been serving the semiconductor market and this specific industry for more than 15 years, developing an offering that meets the industry’s exacting needs.

Wet Chemistries Real-Time

Semiconductor wafer plants consume tons of chemicals throughout the whole fab process. The reliability of each chemical solution is top concern of fabs, as even the slightest deviation from specification can result in expensive equipment contamination and wafer scrap. From chemistry’s point of view, there are two distinct operations related directly to product quality: process monitoring and fault detection. In process monitoring applications, the desired chemistry must be maintained over time. In fault detection applications, the system must verify that the correct chemical is being dispensed to the process. With accurate monitoring, fabs know the composition of each given chemical stream. Without monitoring, wafers become the de facto chemical monitors. By that time, wafers have already been lost and large-scale equipment contamination may have occurred.

Vaisala K PATENTS® Semicon Refractometer offers real-time liquid monitoring and prevents wrong chemical concentrations from being dispensed onto wafers, indicates timing for spiking, e.g. for water in EKC at the post-etch residual removal, and indicates bath life and KOH concentration in the etching of silicon. The fully integratable Semicon Refractometer supports intelligent fabs and self-diagnosis.

Compressed air & N2 process lines

If you are using compressed air or nitrogen process lines, dew point measurement will help you save resources by avoiding excessive air drying and corrosion of the equipment. In semiconductor industries, compressed air is often used in sensitive high-tech equipment to process and manufacture electronic components. Contamination of compressed air can disrupt other processes, leading to costly maintenance and, in severe cases, can lead to complete plant shutdowns. Different processes also require different dew points. For example, compressed air equipment generally requires a pressure dew point better than -10℃, and a semiconductor chip factory would require pressure dew point at -40℃ or -70℃. These dew point temperature requirements can be achieved through Vaisala’s DRYCAP technology that enables quick response time with accuracy and low maintenance needs.

Facility Control

Insufficient ventilation decreases not only employee well-being but also productivity substantially, as much 18%. With accurate humidity, CO2, and temperature measurement using reliable, durable, and traceable HVAC sensors, both energy efficiency and employee well-being can be achieved simultaneously.

Vaisala’s reliable and accurate HVAC meters and sensors are designed with energy efficiency in mind, whether you are optimizing cooling towers or demand-controlled ventilation. Our large selection includes ±3% and ±2% humidity and temperature measurement HVAC meters, CO2 measurement sensors and also handheld meters. They can be used indoors and outdoors, and installed on walls or in ventilation ducts.