Particulate Contamination and Microelectronics Manufacturing: An Introduction

Abstract

The manufacture of integrated circuits for computers and various microprocessors is of increasing importance. Higher speeds of operation and lower costs require higher circuit densities, thus further miniaturization. Circuit elements have features in the submicron size domain and are quite sensitive to contaminant particles of comparable sizes. People, equipment, chemicals, and piping generate particles which are transported to the vicinity of the product and some of which are deposited. The deposition rate depends upon the airborne particle size distribution and the concentration and the deposition velocities caused by various deposition mechanisms. Methods for measuring submicron particles in gases and on surfaces are widely used and are being further developed, along with improved methods for data analysis. Cleaning submicron particles from surfaces is difficult; those particles that remain can have major impacts on process yield, to which process economic viability is strongly related. Research is needed in: source determination, transport modeling, aerosol characterization, deposition mechanisms, surface particle characterization, cleaning, defect analysis, and the design of processes and products that are robust.