FOUP mini-environment contamination control optimizing nitrogen purging

Author

Tokunaga, Kyoya ; Koiwa, A. ; Suzuki, Nobuhiro ; Takeda, Kenji ; Makabe, K. ; Nishihara, S. ; Koike, Atsushi

Author_Institution

Trecenti Technol. Inc., Hitachinaka, Japan

fYear

2003

fDate

30 Sept.-2 Oct. 2003

Firstpage

463

Lastpage

466

Abstract

We have evaluated FOUP nitrogen purging performance and effect on Semiconductor device characteristics. Due to small inner volume, small amount of nitrogen gas flow is effective to reduce oxygen and humidity inside FOUP. Sealing structure like check valve is important to keep environment inside. Nitrogen purging is found effective to improve Cu interconnect reliability etc. From purging time and particle point of view, we believe purging at equipment loadport should be done through FOUP door/shell opening instead of breathing filter at FOUP bottom. System configuration compatible with current SEMI standard is proposed.

Keywords

contamination; copper; electric breakdown; integrated circuit interconnections; integrated circuit manufacture; integrated circuit reliability; nitrogen; phosphorus; process control; silicon; Cu; Cu interconnect reliability; N; P:Si; front opening unified pod; humidity; minienvironment contamination; nitrogen gas flow; nitrogen purging; oxygen; sealing structure; semiconductor device properties; Contamination; Filters; Humidity; Nitrogen; Performance analysis; Sealing materials; Seals; Semiconductor device manufacture; Semiconductor devices; Valves;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Semiconductor Manufacturing, 2003 IEEE International Symposium on

ISSN

1523-553X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7894-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISSM.2003.1243327

Filename

1243327