Abstract:

While the need for ultraclean semiconductor manufacturing equipment has long been clear, cleanliness guidelines for manufacturers who produce the equipment have been slow in coming. While waiting for SEMI specifications, a few manufacturers have set their own goals and testing procedures. St.-Gobain Performance Plastics (SGPPL) has adopted a testing program for particle purity, metallic extractables, and reliability of its components used in high-purity applications. Components are tested for particle shedding into flowing ultrapure water. Active components are also tested during operation. The DyconEx SM dynamic extraction procedure is used to determine the rate of metal extraction over time. Data from this test can be used to predict a component’s contribution to metallic contamination in a process chemical stream. The reliability of components is tested under operating conditions in both 37% HCl and 49% HF, because they typically cause different types of failures. To allow statistical analysis of failure, tests are continued until 70% or more of the components have failed. The testing program has shown that most of SGPPL’s components already meet their goals.