VLSI Process Technology Lecture: Clean Room & Contamination Control MSc Microelectronics, UKM Prof. Dr. Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis The first silicon IC chip , made by Robert Noyce of Fairchild Camera shows lots pf contamination.Types of Contamination Particulates = Inorganic Dust, + metalic, silicon, glass, quartz... = Organic Dust «+ dried skin, hair, clothing fibers, makeup, bactera, ... Films — Residues + oil, grease, finger prints, incomplete etch, ... + solvent residues (acetone, IPA, ...), photoresist developer residue, inadequate rinsing, water st = Oxides + grown by thermal, chemical, or electrochemical processes Atomic Contamination = Absorbed / Adsorbed Atoms or lons + in /on the films or substrate (Na, K, Ca, Au, Cu, Fe, Ni, Cr, ) Sources of Contamination Humans. — cause most of the contamination — dirt, oils, etc. tracked into labs on shoe soles — bodies continuously exfoliate skin, replace hair, — widespread use of make-up, perfume, hair gels, ... + spread throughout lab by central air system — use of mechanical tweezers + scratch and chip wafer edge and surface Machines — abrasion during automated wafer handling — mechanical mechanism wear and lubrication ~ aging plastic and rubber partsContamination Induced Problems + Mobile ions in oxides — can change electric fields and voltages at Si surface + mostly an issue for MOSFETs (A threshold voltage) but also exploited for anodic wafer bonding + Impurities in silicon = act as recombination centers for electron-hole pairs and impact carrier concentration / distribution + Particles on surface or in release etchant — create numerous problems during photolithography = can jam micromechanical structures + Unintentional films between layers — create open circuits or short circuits between layers — impede adhesion between films (release etch) What is Clean room + A clean room is a man-made environment that has much lower particle counts than the normal environment. + The first cleanrooms were built for hospital surgery rooms to control the airborne bacteria contamination responsible for postsurgery infection. + Soon after the semiconductor industry developed, engineer realized the importance of contamination control, and adopted clean room technology in transistor and IC fabrication.What is Clean room * A work area in which the air quality, temperature and humidity are highly regulated in order to protect sensitive equipment from contamination. Clean rooms are important features in the production of silicon chip, hard disk drive and other technologies such as satellites. The air in a clean room is repeatedly filtered to remove dust particles and other impurities that can damage the production of highly sensitive technologies.. Clean room Standard definitions of cleanroom classifications are a strange combination of metric and English units. Aclass 10 cleanroom is defined as having 10 particles with' diameter larger than 0.5 um per cubic foot. Class 1 must achieve less than 1particle with diameter larger than 0.5 um per cubic foot. A fab making IC chips with a minimum feature size of 0.25 um needs a class 1 cleanroom to achieve an acceptable yield.What is Clean room + Aclean room is a work area with controlled temperature and humidity to protect sensitive equipment from contamination. It contains plastic walls and ceilings, external lighting, and there is a continuous influx of clean, dust-free air. The room should be cleaned daily to prevent contamination. Many different industries require the use of a clean room. — Medical facilities, integrated circuit manufacturers, and dairy farms are just a few. What is Clean room *It is vital that construction of the clean room includes strict control of the environmental conditions in order to insure a quality room. “The environmental conditions in a clean room are controlled by particle enclosure during installation of the wall, floor, ceiling and media.Effect of particulates zarah mikro yang, + Defects on microcircuits due to particle on mask, (a) particle on mask, (b) pattem on wafer after lithography process Effects of Particulates * Photolithography — create defects (cuts or protrusions) + MicrostructuresParticles + Our atmosphere contain many floating particles like microorganism, fibers, skin flakes, carbon, metals and also non metals + Air contain million of different size particles which cannot be seen by naked eye. Comparison of Particle Sizes rab mana, 75a i niin on ain Ying camp eben tg 3m °®@ shag ba, 510 ® bakes alan yang ceo, 15 om sp ook, lam, 13 5amParticles emit from Human body based on activities Activity No, of 0.3 pm particles emitted from body(per minute) Standingy/sitting 100,000 Sitting with small movement 500,000 Body and hand movement 1,000,000 Stand up 2,500,000 Slow working (3.2 kmijam) 5,000,000 Normal working (5.6 km/jam) 7,500,000 Exercise movement (8 km/jam) 15,000,000 Classification of Clean room + In industries where a specific level of cleanliness has been established, the Federal Standard STD-209E form is used. This standard outlines the airborne particulate cleanliness classes. Class limits are given for each class name. These limits designate specific concentrations (particles per unit volume) of airborne particles found in the clean room.Classification of Clean room Class No.of 0.5m —_No. of particles > S pm percub. foot _ per cubic foot 100 100 1000 1000 10,000 10,000 65 100,000 100,000 700 Degree of Cleanliness Location No of 0.5 pm particles per cubic foot IC Fabrication lab. 100 Stratosphere at 40 km 200 Air on sea surface 80,000 Clean city 5,000,000 Polluted City 10,000,000Classification of Clean room * Clean room with class higher than 100 is called super clean room * Classification based on U.S Federal Standard 209E. * Class 10 and class 1 was introduced, metric system is used with class M1 to M7. Class M1 is for 10 particles/m? and 7 is for 10,000,000 particles/m*. Classification based U.S Federal Standard 209EParticle distribution according ton degree of cleanliness Saiz zarsh (un) Clean Room Classification Cm cc tum | un [etanges | fter | seociy | sibron okrance | roksance | eapeaeos r prices tks | prhour| coverage] im | qua) er peat | "poe co comme Tay, Too oo |_Toogon| a0] ~twso| Tom Too] — os] 0-90 [9 | Hoe Tox |— Loo] as isos] —s0 | o.50 DOF ToL — ma aes pao | RT so] oP ae To[ 10 aes [aos] too [730290 ase TL oraes [0-000 | 109 vate Pao S[ 3} e055 | sioato | “too roo. 116s —[o- + Temperature is controlled: 68 to 72°F + Humidity is controlled: 40 to 48 % RH + Room is held at positive pressure to blow dust OUT = 0.1 inch of H,0 (3.6 mpsi for Class 100, 1000, and 10,000 = 0.310 0.4 inch of H,0 for Class 1 and 10 = doors open inward, so room pressure closes them shut uClean-room elements + Both the design of a clean room and its operation must be set up to keep dirt and contamination from getting into the room from the out- side. + Nine techniques are used to keep out and control dirt, They are: 1, Adhesive floor mats. 2. Gowning area 3. Air pressure 4. Air showers 5. Service bays 6, Double-door pass-through 7. Static control 5, Shoe cleaners 9. Glove cleaners Layout for a typical fab processing area a ‘ects o Mahia Equipment Sect sonee Tat = 2Clean room Structure * The basic structure of an advanced cleanroom is illustrated below, t Epes AeClean room structure + The cleanroom usually has a raised floor with grid panels, which allows airstream to flow vertically from the ceiling to the area underneath the process and equipment area. + Airflow returns to the cleanroom through the high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, which removes most particles carried by the air-flow. Clean room structure To cut costs, only wafer processing areas are designed with the highest-class cleanroom, whereas equipment areas have lower-class. cleanroom design; most facilities are not in a cleanroom at all. For fabrication of IC chips with 0.18 um, better than class 1 cleanroom is needed for the processing area. Normally, class 1000 is good enough for the equipment area, which represents a significant savings in design and maintenanceClean room structure + A clean room is always kept at higher pressure than non clean areas, which keeps airflow outward against airborne particles when a door is opened. ‘The same principle applies to the different-class area inside the clean room: higher-class areas have higher pressure than lower-class areas. Variations in temperature, airflow rate, and humidity can also disturb surface particles, so all atmospherics, must be strictly controlled in the cleanroom Clean room structure Air flow into clean room are filtered using HEPA filter (High efficiency particulate air filter). — Designed with efficiency of 99.97% to remove particles of 0.3 pm. Pressure in clean room is higher than normal room by 0.52 psi(positive pressure).Air Flow Direction Metal separator grids Pleated layers of fiber paper (HEPA) Filters most common type of clean room air filter “high efficiency, low pressure drop, good loading characteristics uses glass fibers in a paper-like medium ~are rated by their particle retention: ‘A true HEPA-rated filter, by definition, will retain 99.97 % of incident particles of with a diameter of 0.3 jim or larger Clean room structure + To achieve better than class 100 cleanness, it is important to keep a linear airflow usually called laminar flow, and avoid air turbulence. + Air turbulence can render particles on the surfaces of the wall, ceiling, table, and tools, air-borne, and make it difficult for them to settle + With laminar flow, airborne particles are carried away quickly by the airflow. * Class 100 is the dividing line between laminar flow and turbulent flow, an important point with respect to cleanroom cost. + Lower than class 100 can be achieved with turbulent flow, which costs much fess than laminar flow. 16Air flow type + turbulance + vertical flow * horizontal flow * conventional flow Type of Air flow in Cleanroom c9) FTL |! | Hh* Clean room operator are required to wear special non-linting body-suits, overshoes, gloves, head coverings and masks. In some clean rooms, workers even pass through an air blast upon entering to remove particles and ensure minimal contamination cg environment. Air Shower Air showers serve to protect your cleanroom environment from unwanted contamination. Clean garments become contaminated during the gowning/ungowning process, general use, and because of high traffic in the gowning area. The contamination problem is amplified when the same garment is worn several times or is taken on and off numerous times during the day.Air Shower eair shower is a fast and effective method of removing this surface contamination; e The air shower is quality constructed using heavy gage painted steel (no particle board) to minimize particle generation. Air showers are available in a variety of sizes and shapes to provide a cleaning system to meet your specific application. Air ShowerStation