Particle counting makes visible progress
12/01/2002
Real-time monitoring makes waves at SEMICON Southwest
By Hank Hogan
AUSTIN, TX—Spotting particles as soon as possible without disturbing manufacturing was a theme at SEMICON Southwest 2002, held here in mid-November. Several innovative new products and insight highlight this trend, including devices from Inficon (Syracuse, NY), Particle Measuring Systems (Boulder, CO), Particle Sizing Systems (Santa Barbara, CA) and Pacific Scientific (Grants Pass, OR).
In Inficon's case, the company says its new Stiletto scanning laser particle detector provides in-situ scanning of vacuum chambers and pump lines in semiconductor equipment. According to company representatives, the device spots particles as small as 0.2 microns in size by sweeping a laser through a volume and capturing the light reflected off any particles in the beam.
"It's an innovative application of technology," Ray Burghard, Inficon's product marketing manager for particle detection, told CleanRooms. "The scanning laser has been around, but now we're using it to count particles in-situ."
The product, which will be available in the first quarter of 2003, integrates with Inficon's software platform to monitor tool conditions and combines that with particle counts, updating every second.
Particle Sizing Systems aims for a similar outcome with its new product, the AutoSizerFX. According to the company, this single-particle optical sizer measures the extinction of a beam to count and size particles above 0.5 microns in a silica-slurry used in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). The presence of oversize particles correlates to yield-limiting scratches that occur during CMP.
In the past, this process required diluting the solution by a ratio of up to 1,000 to 1, meaning any monitoring had to be done offline, which, in turn, exposed product to potential yield problems. "The new product lets you work at higher concentration," notes Kerry Haspidis, vice president of the Particle Sizing Systems.
Thus, the device can act as an inline monitor and provide better process control. The AutoSizerFX is currently in beta testing and the company says it should hit the market in the first quarter of 2003.
Particle Measuring Systems is touting its new MiniNet, which provides integrated minienvironment monitoring. The company says the device simultaneously samples up to seven locations within a minienvironment and offers tools to help pinpoint the particle's source.
John Early, vice president of sales of Pacific Scientific Instruments, says his company is increasingly being asked to merge particle counting with temperature, humidity and various other environmental monitoring capabilities. "Multi-parameter continuous monitoring could be the next trend when it comes to particle counting, contamination monitoring and process control," says Early.
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Particle Sizing Systems' AutoSizerFX counts and sizes particles above 0.5 microns in a silica-slurry. This slurry is used in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP).