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THOMAS EHMANN, LASZLO FABRY, JAMES MORELAND & JÜRGAN HAGE,Wacker Siltronic AG, Burghausen, Germany
MARIA SERWE, Agilent Technologies GmbH, Waldbronn, Germany

ABSTRACT

Crystalline perfection and cleanliness of silicon wafers are becoming limiting factors for increasing integration density of semiconductor devices. Both crystalline perfection and cleanliness of the wafers depend upon the cleanliness of process chemicals, process environment and process variations. Monitoring process hygiene requires sophisticated ultratrace microanalytical techniques that are capable to control process cleanliness and to assure product quality down to the lower ppt-range (pg/ml) [1,2]. As a rule of thumb, reference materials, analytical environment and analytical chemicals must be one order of magnitude cleaner than the process conditions to allow dependable analytical results on processes and products.