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SEMATECH and TNO developing standards for outgassing in IC production

Date: 09/07/2013
SEMATECH and TNO have announced that they have established a strategic partnership aimed to enable measurement standards for establishing traceability for outgassing rates and leak rate measurement in semiconductor tools and processing.

Semiconductor manufacturers are facing new contamination control and monitoring challenges, including component and materials' outgassing which can introduce a variety of contaminants into semiconductor fabs, impacting many processes. The objective of the project is to develop metrological procedures and guidelines for the measurement of equipment that will help the industry to have recommended practices for comparing measuring and reporting outgassing data. In the course of the project, metrological procedures for the measurement of outgassing and qualification of material will be defined and validated to address nanoscale defectivity. The major gaps in the types of component and material that are currently limiting the performance of the tools due to outgassing resulting in nanosize contamination will be identified.

“Since there is currently no industry standard for quantifying outgassing performance, SEMATECH and TNO have partnered to develop a standardized method for characterizing outgassing rates of components and material for semiconductor processing applications,” said Michael Lercel, senior director of Nanodefectivity and Metrology, SEMATECH. “This joint project builds on SEMATECH’s proven technical expertise in nanoscale defect detection and characterization and TNO’s experience and innovative ability to deliver contamination free solutions to enable equipment solutions that can meet future challenges.”

“Collaboration between TNO and SEMATECH combines our respective strengths and expertise in the development of standard test for measuring outgassing and contaminants,” said Roland van Vliet, Business Line Manager Semicon at TNO. “We are pleased to have an industry leader in nanodefectivity and characterization of materials as a collaborator, whose considerable research and development network and exposure to industry problems can help us to develop a much needed solution to accelerate the equipment productivity and performance for the industry.”