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Title: Development of high sensitivity techniques for characterizing outgassing of polymeric construction materials for microenvironments

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10151515· OSTI ID:10151515

Further reductions in particulate contamination in semiconductor device manufacturing environments will be required to meet the future challenges of producing devices with decreased dimensions. Using pods (microenvironments) to provide very clean environments on a local (wafer level) scale is an alternative that may reduce the technological demands and cost of providing comparable contamination levels in an entire clean-room manufacturing facility. It has been demonstrated that pods can provide wafer environments that have lower and less variable levels of particulate contamination than conventional clean-room manufacturing environments. However, there have also been indications that outgassed constituents from polymeric pod materials can condense on wafers during storage. A standard technique to evaluate outgassing of polymers is needed so that: (1) manufacturers can make reliable comparisons of the outgassing potential of materials being considered for use and (2) microenvironment users can make judgments on the relative outgassing threats from different manufacturers` products. The goal of the work that is summarized below has been to develop standard high sensitivity (10--100 ppb) testing techniques for evaluation of outgassing from polymeric pod materials in a temperature range from 30 C--75 C. This paper will briefly review outgassing data from polycarbonate materials that was obtained using thermal desorption combined with detection using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy wit volatile pre-concentration or using a flame ionization detector (FID). Although the focus of this program has been on developing techniques to evaluate pod materials of construction, the techniques that have been evaluated may be useful for characterizing outgassing from other polymeric materials found in cleanrooms.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
10151515
Report Number(s):
SAND-94-1278C; CONF-940510-7; ON: DE94012068; BR: GB0103012; TRN: AHC29412%%57
Resource Relation:
Conference: 40. annual technical meeting and exposition of the Institute of Environmental Sciences (IES),Rosemont, IL (United States),1-6 May 1994; Other Information: PBD: [1994]
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English