SEMATECH announced today that Applied Seals North America (ASNA) has joined SEMATECH’s Manufacturing Technology Center, which is designed to improve semiconductor equipment manufacturing productivity, yield and cost.
The Manufacturing Technology Center is working on particle management solutions to reduce the number of particle excursions that are found in vacuum process tools. As a part of this project, fab participants identified chemical vapor deposition (CVD) systems as the largest contributor to the failure rate and shallow trench isolation (STI) gap fill as the most problematic process application within the CVD tool group.
As a member of SEMATECH’s Manufacturing Technology Center, ASNA will collaborate with SEMATECH engineers to reduce the number of particle excursions by identifying seal designs and materials for STI gap fill process tools that are used in both 200 mm and 300 mm semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Additionally, ASNA and SEMATECH will work together to develop and introduce new material solutions that will help to significantly extend the life of the seals and reduce the number of particles that are shed from them.
“We are excited to collaborate with SEMATECH on innovative technology development to help address current and future technology challenges for sealing of vacuum systems,” said Dalia Vernikovsky, CEO of ASNA. “This project will help spearhead initiatives and collaborative efforts to drastically improve sealing performance while significantly decreasing defects that are attributed to seals. As the complexity of the technology increases, innovations in materials, seal design and particle control is essential for successful manufacturing.”
“Particle excursions are a major cost-of-ownership issue for vacuum tools and there is a technology gap that ASNA can help address to enable fabs to squeeze additional productivity from their very expensive vacuum tools,” said Julian Richards, Manufacturing Technology project manager. “We look forward to working closely with ASNA in a collaborative effort to engineer sealing solutions that reduce the number of down events caused by particle excursions.”