Application of Ion Mobility Spectrometry to Semiconductor Technology: Outgassings of Advanced Polymers under Thermal Stress

Abstract

Due to the continuing trend toward higher integration scales and smaller structural dimensions in semiconductor technology, a new class of detrimental contaminants arises: volatile organics. Recently it has been shown that, among others, they cause severe problems in epitaxial growth, in oxidation kinetics, and in all wet chemical treatments of the wafer. In order to select appropriate polymeric materials for future boxes, minienvironments, or other equipment, we investigated the outgassing characteristics of polypropylene (PP: natural, antistatic, and blue, respectively), polycarbonate (PC), perfluoroalkoxy polymer (PFA), po]yvinylidenefluoride (PVDF), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymer (ABS), and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). All samples were taken from commercial products for semiconductor technology. Each polymer was heated up from 60 to 20~ below its softening temperature with continuous monitoring of the amount of outgassing. Additionally, the outgassing components were identified separately. PTFE and PFA showed the lowest amounts of outgassings over the entire temperature range. If only selected temperature ranges are of interest, other polymers like PVDF or PC are almost as good. From the knowledge about particular outgassings and the understanding of the chemistry of the polymer, measures can be derived on how to improve .certain polymers.

On the existence of submicron diameter current shunts in morphologically perfect device layers

“…Particulate contamination was recognized early on as the key element, which needs to be brought under control. However, in the 90 0 s it became apparent that another, much harder to control contaminant had to be seriously addressed, namely volatile organic molecules [14]. Personnel in the cleanrooms is a significant source, however, outgassing from all kinds of plastic tools and containers can be the largest problem.…”

“…Although many volatile organic molecules will tend to adhere to the wafer surface, long-chained molecules with heteroatoms and highly polar functional groups will stick particularly effectively, because of their much stronger van der Waals bonding. The strength of such bonding, along with good thermal molecule stability, is often sufficient for the contamination to survive all stages of wafer preparation, including thermal oxide desorption or even UV/ozone treatment [14].…”

Behaviors of Leucine and Isoleucine in Ion Mobility‐Quadrupole Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry

“…Since its introduction in the 1970s, ion mobility separation coupled with mass spectrometry (IM-MS) has been found broad applications in the analysis of various materials, including warfare agents, [1] explosives, [2,3] anesthetics, [4] semiconductors, [5] and biological macromolecules (e.g. peptides and proteins).…”

Sliding window multi-curve resolution: Application to gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry

“…IMS was first used in the 1970s for explosives and chemical warfare agents detection in military applications [4]. Over the past twenty years, IMS fields of application have widened and it is currently being used in environmental [5], industrial [6], and biomedical studies [7], drug detection [8], security applications [9], food quality [10] and fraud detection [11].…”