AIRBORNE MOLECULAR CONTAMINATION - CLEANROOM CONTROL STRATEGIES

Increased sensitivity of the semiconductor manufacturing process to ai rborne molecular contamination (AMC) has led to advances in classifica tion, environmental standards, cleanroom certification, and control te chnology. This article looks at examples of process-related problems c aused by low-concentration fugitive gases in cleanroom air and outline s solutions that can be implemented in existing and future cleanrooms. AMC is already a serious problem and is expected to become even more detrimental as wafer diameters increase to 300 mm and as feature geome tries decrease to 0.25 mu m and below. Like other more familiar enviro nmental parameters, AMC is both measurable and controllable.