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Product Briefing Outline: Entegris has introduced a new solution for accurately measuring and controlling volatile organic compounds that cause contamination in advanced semiconductor lithography processes. If left uncontrolled, these low molecular weight, silicon-containing organic compounds such as Trimethysilanol (TMS) have been shown to impact 248nm and 193nm exposure tools, and can lead to permanent damage of sensitive and costly optical components.

Problem: Manufacturers of scanner tools have already mandated the measurement of high molecular weight contaminants, but until now, there has been no means for fabs to reliably identify and quantify the presence of the low molecular weight variety. Entegris believes it is one of a few companies worldwide with analytical service capabilities to accurately sample and analyze these contaminants in the fab environment.

Solution: Entegris said that they are now able to accurately and reliably see and control low molecular weight silicon contamination as well as some high molecular weight compounds such as HMDSO and D3, which have been difficult to measure due to their volatile nature. The new sampling method for TMS is said to provide accurate a low 30 ppt detection limit. As a preferred partner for OEM compliance and product validation measurements for ASML and Nikon, which require users of their tools to measure low and high molecular weight silicon compounds, Entegris can now offer this solution for fabs. This is also expected to allow OEMs to further reduce lithography process contamination that can impact yields and shorten the lives of critical manufacturing components

Applications: 248nm and 193nm DUV lithography tool optical systems.

Platform: Samples are collected by Entegris AMC engineers and returned to Entegris AMC Analytical Services for analysis and report generation, which can include review and follow-up steps.

Availability: March 2009 onwards.