UNIT IV PREPARATION ENVIRONMENTS

Contents
 Introduction about Clean room
 What is contaminations
 Sources of contaminations
 Cleaning of Clean room
 Clean room Standards
 Clean room Do’s and Don’ts

Definition
It is clear that a clean room is a room that is clean. However, a clean room has a special meaning and it is defined in
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 14644-1 as:
Room in which the concentration of airborne particles is controlled, and which is constructed and used in a manner to
minimize the introduction, generation, and retention of particles inside the room and in which other relevant
parameters, e.g. temperature, humidity, and pressure, are controlled as necessary.

Introduction about Clean Room

 Controlled environment where products are manufactured.
 Concentration of airborne particles is controlled to specified limits.
 Contaminants are generated by people, process, facilities and equipment.
 A particle 200 times smaller (0.5 micron) than the human hair can cause major disaster in a clean room.
 Only way to control contamination is to control the total environment.
 Clean rooms are planned and manufactured using strict protocol and methods.
 Electronics, pharmaceutical, bio pharmaceutical, medical device industries.
 Class 100 clean room is designed to never allow more than 100 particles (0.5 microns or larger) per cubic
foot of air.
Some Clean Room Applications

What is Contamination?
 ‘Any unwanted substance present in or on a material or any surface within a clean zone’.
 Process or act that causes materials or surfaces to be spoiled with contaminating substances.
 Film type and particulates type.
 Contaminants can produce a “killer defect” in a miniature circuit.
 Film contaminants of only 10 nm (nanometers) can drastically reduce coating adhesion on a wafer or chip.

Contaminating particle on a Semi conductor

Sources of Contamination
Five basic sources:
 Facilities
 People
 Tools
 Fluids
 The product being manufactured.
Facilities:
 Walls, floors and ceilings
 Paint and coatings
 Construc on material sheet rock saw dust etc.
 Air conditioning debris
  Room air and vapours
 Spills and leaks
People:
 Skin flakes and oil
 Cosmetics and perfume
 Spittle
 Clothing debris (lint, fibres etc.
 Hair
 People are a major source of contamination in the clean room
PEOPLE ACTIVITY PARTICLES/MINUTE
(0.3 MICRONS & larger)
Motionless (standing or seated) 100,000
Walking about 2 mph 5,000,000
Walking about 3.5 mph 7,000,000
Walking about 5 mph 10,000,000
Tool Generated
 Friction and wear particles
 Lubricants and emissions
 Vibrations
 Brooms, mops and dusters
Fluids
 Particulates floating in air
 Bacteria, organics and moisture
 Floor finishes or coatings
 Cleaning chemicals

FEATURES OF CLEAN ROOM

1. Overpressure (50 Pa) for keeping particles outside;
2. Filtered air 99.9995% at 0.15μm particle size ;
3. Heating/cooling/humidification/drying of incoming air;
4. Laminar (unidirectional) air flow in the working areas;
5. Materials compatibility;
6. Mechanical and electrical interference minimization;
7. Working procedures.
Cleaning Procedures for Clean Rooms
 It is important for cleaning managers to review all cleaning procedures to be used in a clean room.
 Cleaning of a clean room should be performed on a daily basis.
 Proper selection of equipment and materials is important for proper cleaning.
List of Some of Equipment Needed to Clean the Clean room
 Cleaning and disinfecting solutions
 Clean room mops
 Clean room acuum cleaner if allowed
 Clean room wipers
 Clean room mop bucket and wringer
List of Cleaning Tasks to be completed in the Clean room
Frequency may vary depending upon local requirements.
 Cleaning of all work surfaces in the controlled environment.
 Vacuuming (if allowed) of the floors and work surfaces.
 Emptying of appropriate trash and waste.
 Mop gowning and clean room floors.
Standards for classification of clean rooms
Federal Standard 209
 The first Federal Standard 209 was published in 1963 in the USA, and titled "Clean room and Work Station
Requirements, Controlled Environments".
 It was revised in 1966 (209A), 1973 (B), 1987 (C), 1988 (D) and 1992 (E), and withdrawn in 2001.
ISO Standards
 ISO-14644-1 Classification of Air Cleanliness
 ISO-14644-2 Clean room Testing for Compliance
 ISO-14644-3 Methods for Evaluating & Measuring Clean rooms & Associated Controlled Environment
 ISO-14644-4 Clean room Design & Construction
 ISO-14644-5 Clean room Operations
 ISO-14644-6 Terms, Definitions & Units
 ISO-14644-7 Enhanced Clean Devices
 ISO-14644-8 Molecular Contamination
 ISO-14698-1 Bio contamination: Control General Principles
 ISO-14698-2 Bio contamination: Evaluation & Interpretation of Data
 ISO-14698-3 Bio contamination: Methodology for Measuring Efficiency of Cleaning Inert Surfaces
Classification of Air Cleanliness
 The classes are based on the formula

Where
 Cn = maximum permitted number of particles per cubic meter
 N = is the ISO class number, which must be a multiple of 0.1 and be 9 or less
 D = is the particle size in micrometers
Clean room do’s:
 All personal items such as keys, watches, rings, matches, lighters and cigarettes should be stored in the
personal locker outside the gowning room.
 NO eating, smoking or gum chewing allowed inside the clean room.
 Only garments approved for the clean room should be worn when entering.
 NO cosmetics shall be worn in the clean rooms
 Approved ball point pens shall be the only writing tool used.
 Use of paper or fabric towels is prohibited.
 NO tool should be allowed to rest on the surface of a bench or table. It should be place on a clean room
wiper.
 Only approved clean room paper shall be allowed in the clean room.
Clean room Don'ts
 Fast motions such as running, walking fast or horseplay.
 Sitting or leaning on equipment or work surfaces.
 Writing on equipment or garments.
 Wearing the clean room garment outside the clean room.
 Wearing torn or soiled garments

AIR PURITY
Vertical Unidirectional Air Flow

Air handling consists of four major blocks:

1. Extraction unit
2. Make-up air unit
3. Recirculation unit
4. Filter fan units.
 In the first phase, the air is filtered from coarse objects, humidification or dehumidification is performed, and
airborne pollutants such as SOx, NOx and ammonia are removed by activated carbon filters.
 Cooling coils and heaters are used to stabilize air temperature. Successive stages of filtration remove finer
particles.
 The final filter is called HEPA (high efficiency particle) or ULPA (ultra-low penetration air); it is installed in the
clean room ceiling
 ULPA filters ha e 99.9995% filtration efficiency at particle size >0.12μm.
 Filter efficiencies can also be classified according to most penetrating particle size.
 Filter defects (pinholes) are also a major concern.
  Air velocity in the clean room is usually 0.35 to 0.45 m/s; and air circulation takes place 50 to 500 times/h,
depending on cleanliness requirements.
 Once the air has been processed, it is re-circulated, with only 10% of replacement air introduced in each cycle.
 Many types of process equipment produce excessive heat loads, for example, furnaces in the range of 100 kW,
and this heat has to be removed in order to maintain constant temperature in the cleanroom.
 Most of the excess heat is taken away by cooling water.
 The design of a clean room must include knowledge of the processes and tools that are going to be employed.

Water Purity
 Ultra-pure water is used in the semiconductor industry principally to remove contaminants from the surface of
wafers being processed.
 It is used in a variety of cleaning stages following processes such as etching.
 This is a process step during which the wafer is immersed for a specified time in concentrated acid, e.g.
sulphuric/hydrogen peroxide, hydrofluoric, etc.
 Residual acid on the wafer surface must be removed quickly to prevent over-etching and whatever chemical is
used to achieve this must not itself contribute any contaminant to the wafer surface.
 The chemical normally used for this process is ultra-pure water (UPW), chosen because it is readily available in
crude form, is relatively cheap, can be purified to a state where it contains virtually no contaminants, and is an
excellent solvent for most of the chemicals used in wafer processing.
 However, the excellent solvent properties of UPW also make it difficult to maintain in its pure state due to its
affinity for most contaminants existing in the atmosphere, in tanks, vessels and pipe work.

Impact of Contaminated Water

 It is worth putting in to perspective the potential impact that a contaminated water supply could have in the
manufacturing area.
 Unlike other process chemicals, Ultrapure Water is used throughout the wafer fabrication and accounts for
greater than 99.5% by volume of all chemicals used.
 The contaminants that are of concern can be loosely classified into five main categories :
 Ionic
 Non-ionic
 Organic
 Bacteria
 Dissolved gases

Ionic
 Ionic species form the largest percentage of all contaminants which must be removed from the source
water.
 The concentration and types that are present depend on the source of the local supply but the common
ions such as calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, sulphate, carbonate and bicarbonate will
almost certainly be predominant.
 The principle methods for removing ionic species are reverse osmosis and ion exchange, economic
considerations determining the extent to which each is utilized.
 Other potential sources of ionic contamination are regeneration chemicals, on-line chemical dosing,
pumps and pipe systems.
 These contaminants, if present, will adversely affect the semiconductor's performance and will almost
certainly result in its failure.
 Ionic contaminants have traditionally been the main area of interest in terms of removal, partly because
the methods are well established and partly because the means of monitoring the removal efficiency have
been readily and economically available.
  The unit used for measuring ionic contamination is resistivity, which is the inverse of conductivity but an
easier unit to use at such low levels. Resistivity is quoted as megohm/cm at a reference temperature of
25°C, this being important as resistivity is temperature dependent.
Figure shows the relationship between resistivity and ionic contamination as ppm sodium chloride.

Non-Ionic
 This class contains contaminants which are either truly non-ionic, being formed of covalently bonded
materials, or so weakly ionic that they may prove difficult to remove using standard ion exchange resins.
 They may also be in the form of insoluble particulate matter which is present in the source water or which
has been generated by the water treatment plant, e.g. resin fines.
 These contaminants may cause yield loss due to distortion between successive layers on the silicon wafer
or by short circuiting.
 They are generally specified in terms of particles per litre above a particular size. The size of particle which
can be tolerated is a function of the device geometry but would normally be less than 0.1 micrometer.

Organic
 The amount of organic compounds present in source water depends on whether it is from a hard water
catchment area or from a surface water reservoir.
 Hard water would characteristically be clear, with a Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) concentration of over 500
ppm.
 Surface water reservoirs, on the other hand, tend to produce soft water which has a TDS of below 100ppm
but which can be heavily laden with organics leached from the soil of the surrounding catchment area.
 The organic compounds in soft water are complex and consist of humic, fulvic and other organic acids
created principally from decaying vegetation.
 Organic contamination can be difficult to remove and the type and concentration can vary considerably
subject to seasonal changes. Organic molecules can cause yield loss due to staining and corrosion on the
wafer surface, or by conversion to smaller organic species by some of the water-treatment processes.
 They can also cause fouling on ion exchange resins and membrane filters thus reducing the ability of these
stages to remove other contaminants. Where this fouling is irreversible, it can result in premature failure
and consequential replacement of resins and membranes.
 Organic concentrations in UPW should be less than 10 ppb and preferably below 5 ppb.
 On-line instrumentation at various stages of the plant is essential to provide early warning of problems and
to ensure that specifications are achieved.
 Total organic concentration can be measured by conversion to carbon dioxide using either UV radiation or
chemicals, or by a combination of both.
Bacteria
 Bacteria are ubiquitous, capable of existing in either aerobic (with oxygen) or anaerobic (without oxygen)
conditions and surviving in extremely harsh conditions to form resistant strains.
 In UPW systems they are usually of the Gram-negative type and in terms of effective particle size can be
sub-micron.
 The components used in water purification, such as ion exchange resins, provide an ideal environment for
bacteria to thrive and once established they can be difficult to remove as the chemicals traditionally used
would themselves cause contamination and irreversible damage to the substrate.
 Bacteria can contaminate semiconductors by either behaving as a particle or by breaking up and leaving a
number of ionic species and pyrogens on the wafer surface.

Dissolved Gases
 The most common dissolved gases in water are oxygen and carbon dioxide and this varies depending on
the source, pH and water temperature. Dissolved oxygen can cause enhanced oxidation at the wafer
surface and, unless removed, will be a variable in the final supply water.
 Dissolved carbon dioxide forms bicarbonate and carbonate ions in solution, the equilibrium being
dependent on pH.
 To achieve acceptable wafer yields, all the above contaminants must be removed to extremely low levels
and consistently maintained.
 The level of each contaminant which is considered to be acceptable is being constantly revised (but never
upwards) as device geometries become smaller and therefore less tolerant of impurities.

Specifications for final water quality

An over view of common technologies

 Pre treatment
 Multi-Media filter
 Activated Carbon filter
 Organic Trap
 Chemical addition
 Filtration
 Reverse Osmosis
 Deaeration/Degassification
 Demineralization
 UV System
Requirements for particular processes, Vibration free environments: Services and facilities required
Design of Clean room for Micro Electronics Manufacturing Process
 Manufacturers of semiconductor circuits have become very large users of cleanrooms.
 The reason is that the manufacturing operations take place at almost the molecular level and the physics of
the operation of the device depend upon purity of materials in atomic percentages measured down to parts
per trillion .
 First germanium and then silicon became the wonder elements of the twentieth century.
 Common practice divides the manufacturing of integrated circuits into three phases :
 Materials
 Wafer fabrication
 Assembly and test.

Materials:

 During the sequence most of the operations take place in an ordinary factory environment.
 Protection against contamination is provided, for the most part, by doing the processing within sealed
systems.
 Any contamination introduced during that step will get into the ingot and will either cause a failure in the
process to make a single crystal or cause unacceptable electrical properties to develop.
 The last part of the process also requires a clean environment (minimum standard is ISO 5 (Class 100)) to allow
the equipment to produce the required finish, thickness, taper and flatness. Also, great care must be taken to
avoid leaving any mobile ions or doping elements on the surface.
 Subsequent high temperature operations could then distribute these into the crystalline structure and destroy
the desired electrical properties.

Wafer Fabrication
 In this phase of the manufacturing, all the active and passive elements of the semiconductor circuits are built
onto or into the polished silicon wafer.
 On the microscopic level one can observe a cross-section of pure silicon being changed by:
 The addition of atoms deep into the pure metal to a controlled depth and concentration ; metal being
etched away; layers of silicon oxide being deposited over everything then selectively etched away to
be replaced by silicon with other impurities, or aluminium; then layers being selectively etched away
and replaced by more oxide and metal.
 The process is repeated until many layers are applied, interconnected, stabilized, passivated, etc.
  Processes include: heat up to 1100°C; attack by exceptionally aggressive chemicals; flooding with chemical
vapours so toxic that the most rigorous controls are required to protect people; exposure to violent levels of
ionizing radiation and superheated ionized plasmas.
 All of these take place to create circuits and active devices whose dimensions range down to 0.01 micrometre
for critical features.

 All the dimensions are controlled by photographic processes (photo-lithography), the success or failure of
manufacturing is absolutely determined by the control (and elimination) of contamination.
 The minimum class required is ISO 5 (Class 100), with the most critical steps requiring ISO 3 (Class 1) or better.

Assembly and Test

 This third phase is where the individual devices are tested, separated from the others on the wafer, mounted
onto a substrate or lead frame, electrically connected from the terminating pads on the silicon chip to the
leads on the lead frame, encapsulated, finally tested and shipped.
 In general, cleanliness levels between ISO 7 (Class 10 000) and ISO 5(Class 100) are required.
Design Guidelines for Clean Room
 Do not overdesign - A full vertical-flow, through-the-floor air return, ISO 3 (Class 1) cleanroom undoubtedly
provides the cleanest, most versatile, easiest to use (most forgiving) facility.
 Design for flexibility - Whatever the system may be, strive to make it possible to rearrange equipment, walls,
filters, air returns, utilities, etc. easily .
 Provide bulkhead-mounting of the process equipment wherever possible, in critical contamination-sensitive
areas. This allows separation of the product-flow from the process equipment and operation, maintenance
and engineering personnel. The product movement area (highest level of cleanliness control) can hence be
very small compared to the operations and equipment area (lower level of control).
 Provide a cleanroom environment only where it is needed, and only to the level needed. To do this
successfully, it must be remembered that a `clean zone' is like a vacuum-nature abhors it! The cleaner the
zone, the more consequential are small leaks and pressure differentials.
 Always examine process equipment. The process equipment should be cleaned thoroughly, and tested for
residual contamination as well as contamination generation or retention, before introducing it into the
cleanroom.

Design utility distribution systems

1. Provide ready access for attachment equipment without the necessity for shutting down the system or cleanroom.
2. Provide adequate flow rates to prevent stagnation and impurity pick-up.
3. Prevent pressure fluctuation during operating ‘runs’. Even slight variations can have disastrous effects on the
product. It is true not only on the supply, but on the extract (exhaust) as well. It pertains to all systems of process
utilities supply and return such as:
 gases supply and extract (exhaust)
 liquids supply and drain
 Electrical supply and earth-ground.
4. Periodically provide attachment points and blanked-off valves for all gases and liquids (except deionised water) so
that a connection can be made without the danger of contaminating active process lines; they are virtually impossible
to clean once contaminated. Deionised water systems should be provided with isolation valves and sterilization
connections to:
 make a new connection
 perform sterilization
 test to assure sterility and purity specifications
 Open the system.
5. Always design for the ultimate filtration of gases and liquids to be after the last valve or flow measurement device,
so that the filter is the last thing before the product.
This is so important that process equipment must be modified before installation if the situation is otherwise than
required.
There is no valve available at present whose operation does not produce particles in the fluid it is controlling, to a
yield or function-damaging level.

Design for freedom from vibration interference

 The design for the control of these should start, very early, with site selection.
 Before any site is adopted, thorough testing and analysis should be made of : seismic activity, soil conditions,
proximity to railroads, highways, airport landing and take-off paths, adjacent industry, adjacent bodies of
water where waves beating on shores can create earth impulses very difficult to attenuate and very damage
frequency.
 Large rotating electrical machinery in the vicinity produces both vibrational excitation of the ground and an
electromagnetic field, the strength of which varies as the square of its power.
 High tension power lines in the vicinity not only produce electromagnetic fields but may excite some structural
elements to mechanically vibrate at some multiple (or fraction) of the base frequency.
 All of these, and others, should be evaluated carefully by experts familiar with the microelectronics industry's
needs before a decision is made to proceed.
 The time and money spent doing this may prevent the expenditure of correspondingly larger amounts of both,
should a wrong choice be made. Certainly it is needful to establish parameters for the design of foundations,
columns, spacing of structural elements, etc.

Definition-how the cleanroom is to be built

 The success of a cleanroom project depends to a large extent on what is put on paper and how it is
constructed.
 One feature, often ignored, but certainly within the purview of the designer, is the designation of when and
how cleanliness controls are to be enforced during the construction phase.
 It is possibly the most important instruction the designer can give, for it determines in large measure the
amount of built-in dirt that can greatly prejudice future operations.
 Dirt built in during construction, will come into the process during operation and can determine success or
failure of the cleanroom.
 Recommendation is to require cleanroom procedures to be applied as soon as the building is `dried in', i.e.
before any facility or utility systems or equipment are installed.
 From that point on, continuous cleaning is required, so that no dirt is trapped during construction to cause
trouble later. Such cleaning should include: vacuum cleaning (with a brush) every surface, damp wash with
free-rinsing, non-ionic detergent, rinsing with deionised water and a final wipe-down with 'tack-cloth' prior
to turning the facility on.
DESIGN FEATURES

Air velocities in cleanrooms

Typical requirements for the air cleanliness within the area
 An environment where the wafers are fully exposed-ISO 3 (Class 1) or better.
 An area where wafers are protected in cassettes and enclosed boxes-about ISO 6 (Class 1000).
 Machine-technicians-engineering chase area-ISO 6 to ISO 7 (Class 1000 to Class 10000).
 Adjacent areas outside the cleanroom envelope-standard air conditioning.

Air Flow-Direction
 In most cases, for the maximum control of product cleanliness, the air flow should be vertically downward and
should meet the ISO 3 (Class 1) or better cleanliness specification as it flows onto the product.
 Obviously, vertical flow onto the product is not possible in an evaporator, reactor or diffusion furnace.
 In those special cases, supplemental filter-blower units, scavenging air vanes, etc., should be tried.
 Some special environmental chambers which use a horizontal airflow or an airflow 45 degrees to the
horizontal, have been quite successful in reducing the number of particles reaching the product in some
production equipment. Such equipment, if available, may be worth investigating.
 ULPA filters 99.9995% efficient when tested at manufacture against 0.1 micrometre sized particles, and tested
and certified at installation with a suitable particle challenge, must be used for ISO 3 (Class 1), or better.
  To permit ultimate flexibility and minimal record keeping of what kind of filter goes where, and because the
differential cost between 99.00% and 99.9995% efficient filters is small for the convenience given, it is
recommended that the same higher grade type of filters be used throughout the cleanroom.
 The air should exit the room through perforated panel floors with integral air dampers to regulate the air flow.
The floor covering should be made from a conductive, high pressure laminate and the system must be
grounded.
 ISO Classes 3-5 (Classes 1-100) areas will require 100% coverage Classes 6 and 7 (Classes 1000 and 10000)
require only 50% or less coverage by perforated panels.
 Some solid panels will be required for use under equipment which has a closed base (it is easier to cut utility
piping holes in solid panels).
 An alternative, acceptable solution to the design of air flow for ISO 6 and 7 (Classes 1000 and 10000) is to use
classical turbulent ventilation, the return air vents being in walls or islands and close to floor level.
 This may or may not pose a problem for ducting the return air back to the recalculating air systems, depending
on over-all design.

Air Flow-Quantity
 ISO Classes 3-5 (Classes 1-100) should be designed to between 0.3 and 0.5 m/s depending on the flow through
the respective clean zones.
 It is important to observe the effect of air flow through critical production-equipment interface-locations.
 There are occasions when a reduction of airflow can result in a significant lowering of the particle level or
reduction in the machine interference (cooling). Classes ISO 6, ISO 7 and ISO 8 (Classes 1000, 10 000 and 100
000) should be designed for 50, 30 and 18 ft/min (0.25, 0.15 and 0.09 m/s) flow through them.
 Primary control is achieved by providing equivalent filter/solid panels in the floor. After installation and start-
up, adjustment of filter and perforated-panel dampers will be used to fine-tune air flow direction and
quantity.

Airborne Molecular Contamination

 The most common airborne molecular contamination in the cleanroom is hydrocarbon in nature but can also
include acids, bases and other process chemicals.
 The molecular contamination found within a cleanroom will come from:
 The fabric used in the construction of the cleanroom;
 The machinery within the room
 Uncontrolled chemical releases
 The people within the room
 The outside make-up air
 The air conditioning system

Other Air related contaminations

 Filter suspension system
 Recirculation Air Moving System
 Fresh Air System
 Air Return
 Fire Protection
 Walls