Water and chemical use

11/01/2000

Senior Editor Pete Burggraaf's article "A Closer Look at Some of the Most Difficult Processing Challenges" in the September 2000 issue of SST was extremely informative, particularly the section on solutions for saving water on p. 90.

I hope that the following information on another method addressing water/chemical usage problems will also be of help to semiconductor manufacturers with environmental concerns.

ULVAC Technologies' Enviro processes for post-metal etch, post-via etch, and post-high-dose-implant photoresist removal use 100% dry processing followed only by a DI water rinse, completely eliminating chemical use. Although water is used, the quantity consumed is very small compared to the quantities used to rinse wafers after solvent cleaning.

During the past two years, a number of manufacturers have successfully processed 200mm wafers using Enviro. Product performance has met or exceeded that achieved by wet processes, and cost savings have been significant.

Sincerely,
Dick Bersin
Senior Technical Staff Member
ULVAC Technologies Inc.

Clarification
On p. 152 of the October issue, Jeffery W. Butterbaugh was listed as manager of applications development at FSI International's Surface Conditioning Division. He is actually director of applications engineering there.