Klaus Budde

Determination of Organic Contamination From Polymeric Construction Materials for Semiconductor Technology

Volatile organic surface contaminants on silicon wafers lead to strong detrimental impact on semiconductor production yield and product reliability. Our model for the mechanism of impact is introduced and discussed. Only a few metrology methods are suited for the ultratrace detection of volatiles on surfaces and their identification. The data presented in this paper were achieved by ion mobility spectrometry followed by mass spectrometry (IMS/MS). Eleven commercial wafer storage and transport boxes were screened by sampling the contaminants onto silicon wafers at room temperature. In a second set of experiments, enhanced stress testing was performed at elevated temperatures for polypropylene, polycarbonate, polytetrafluoro ethylene, perfluoro alkoxy polymer, polyvinylidene fluoride and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer. From the outgassing behaviour of single contaminants, valuable information can be achieved. Test method E 46 (SEMI) samples the contaminants onto the wafer under the real conditions of use. The data for six virgin minienvironments are shown.