Staff

CT Associates has assembled a group of experts who believe in strong customer relationships. They provide the expertise their clients need, eliminating the need for their clients to add to their staff or equipment.

President

Gary Van Schooneveld

Gary Van Schooneveld is President of CT Associates. Gary has 30 years of experience with high-purity fluid systems including chemical delivery and ultrapure water and the development and testing of their associated materials and components. He is the author or co-author of more than 45 technical papers and presentations. Gary is an active member of the IRDS UPW and SEMI UPW Task Forces and has been a key contributor in the development and validation of SEMI specification for measuring filter retention below 15 nm (SEMI C79), particle shedding from critical components (SEMI F104) and extractables ion exchange resin rinse performance (SEMI C93). Gary has BS and MS degrees in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) and an MBA from the University of Texas (Arlington, TX).

Principle Investigator

Mark Litchy

Mark Litchy is a Principal Investigator at CT Associates, where he specializes in particle measurement in high purity liquids and colloidal suspensions as well as aerosols. He has more than 25 years of experience in particle measurement and control in high purity liquid chemicals, microporous membrane filtration and CMP slurry characterization. He is the author or co-author of more than 50 publications and presentations and holds 9 patents. He has a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) and a B.A. degree in Physics from St. John’s University (Collegeville, MN).

Corporate Scientist

Larry Zazzera

Larry has 39 years of experience in electronic materials R&D. He received a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Delaware, and a Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from the University of Minnesota. He has held technical positions in semiconductor equipment and semiconductor materials companies as a direct contributor in analytical science, and as a manager of global applications and development teams. As a CT Associates, Inc. Corporate Scientist, his work enables the detection and speciation of organic nanoparticles and particle precursors.

Staff Engineer

Peter Maenke

Peter Maenke has been a Staff Engineer at CT Associates since 2014. He specializes in the design and implementation of dynamic test systems for performance, reliability, permeation, and particulate testing. He has co-authored several technical papers and presentations. He also aids development projects with control, automation, and rapid prototyping. He has a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University (Ames, IA).

Facility

Our specialized facility and instrumentation enables us to handle some of the toughest contamination problems under one roof.

2200-ft2 laboratory space

200-ft2 Class 100 cleanroom and two additional clean hoods
450-ft2 Lab with full chemical handling and waste disposal capabilities (acids, bases, slurry)
8-ft wetbench (two bath positions)
Reliability test cabinets (3)

Process fluids

Ultrahigh purity water – TYPE E-1.1 (Resistivity > 18.2 MΩ-cm; TOC < 1 ppb; NVR < 0.1 ppb; Particle concentration < 50 per liter ≥ 100 nm).
High purity chemicals including 49% HF, 37% HCl, 29% NH4OH and 96% H2SO4
Ozonated water
Compressed air
Blanket nitrogen

Analytical Instruments

Multiple liquid-borne optical particle counters capable of measuring particle sizes from (30 nm to 400 μm)
Multiple Liquid Nanoparticle Sizers (LNS) capable of measuring liquid particle size distributions greater than 3 nm
Multiple Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) systems capable of measuring aerosol particle size distributions from 2.5nm to 1000 nm
Multiple Condensation Particle Counters (CPC) capable of measuring aerosol particle concentrations for particle sizes greater than 2.5 nm
Multiple Scanning Threshold Particle Counters (STPC)
Dynamic Light Scattering (3 nm – 1000 μm)
Zeta potential measurement
On-line TOC analyzers
Organic analysis using FTIR spectroscopy
Non-volatile residue monitors
Other instruments and sensors
Turbidity, pH, specific ion electrode (multiple), resistivity, surface tension, viscosity, density, mass flow rate