Microelectronics Applications

PROTECTING PEOPLE, PROCESSES, AND EQUIPMENT

Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to create the integrated circuits that are present in everyday electrical and electronic devices. It is a multiple-step process during which electronic circuits are gradually created on a wafer made of pure semiconducting material. Silicon is almost always used, but various compound semiconductors are used for specialized applications.

When feature widths were far greater than about 10 micrometres, semiconductor purity was not as big an issue as it is today. As devices became more integrated, cleanrooms became even cleaner. Today, fabrication plants are pressurized with filtered air to remove even the smallest particles, which could come to rest on the wafers and contribute to defects. The workers in a semiconductor fabrication facility are required to wear cleanroom suits to protect the devices from human contamination.

Many toxic materials are used in the fabrication process. These include poisonous substances such as arsenic, antimony, phosphorous, arsine, phosphine, and silane; in addition to highly reactive liquids, such as hydrogen peroxide, fuming nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and hydrofluoric acid. It is vital that workers should not be directly exposed to these dangerous substances. The high degree of automation common in the IC fabrication industry helps to reduce the risks of exposure. Most fabrication facilities employ exhaust management systems, such as wet scrubbers, combustors, heated absorber cartridges and HEPA filters to control the risk to workers and to the environment.

Koch Filter manufactures HEPA filters that maintain 95.00, 99.97, 99.99 and 99.999% initial efficiency ratings. Our filters are UL rated and available in a high temperature media option as well as a compact design for limited space demands.

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