Transporting FOUPs as a driver for ESD-induced EMI

Author

Levit, Larry B. ; Montoya, Julian A.

Author_Institution

Ion Syst. Inc, Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

6/24/1905 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

289

Lastpage

294

Abstract

FOUPs are constructed from insulative plastics. As such, they take on charges of multiple kilovolts and carry large electric fields with them. Because of the large size of the FOUP, appreciable fields extend for a distance of >30 cm from the FOUP and can reach many objects withing the cleanroom. When the fields intersect an ungrounded or poorly grounded conductor, metal-to-metal discharges can occur. These discharges, in turn radiate nanosecond pulses (transient EMI) which can disrupt robotics. This paper details the measurement of such transients in an operating 300 mm fab. The results show that EMI is created by manual handling of FOUPs but that charged FOUPs moving in an overhead track are a much greater cause of EMI with the potential for robotic difficulties.

Keywords

electromagnetic interference; electrostatic discharge; industrial robots; integrated circuit manufacture; materials handling; transients; 300 mm; 300 mm fab; ESD-induced EMI; FOUP transport; cleanroom; insulative plastics; manual handling; metal-to-metal discharges; multiple kilovolts; nanosecond pulses; overhead track; poorly grounded conductor; robotics disruption; semiconductor manufacturing; transient EMI; transients measurement; ungrounded conductor; Conductors; Electromagnetic interference; Electrostatic discharge; Insulation; Microprocessors; Printed circuits; Robots; Semiconductor device manufacture; Surface charging; Surface contamination;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing 2002 IEEE/SEMI Conference and Workshop

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7158-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ASMC.2002.1001620

Filename

1001620