Integrated Circuit Technology

EEL7500

Course Instructor:
Prof. Ajay Agarwal and Dr. Swati Rajput
Department of Electrical Engineering
Reference Books:

1. James D Plummer, Michael D Deal, Peter B. Griffin, “Silicon VLSI Technology –

Fundamentals, Practice, and Modelling, Pearson (2009).
2. S.M. Sze, VLSI Technology, Tata McGraw-Hill, 2003.
3. Stephen Campbell, The Science and Engineering of Microelectronic Fabrication 2/e,
Oxford University Press, 1996.
Introduction to Cleanroom Technology
• A cleanroom or clean room is an engineered space,
which maintains a very low concentration of
airborne particulates. It is well isolated, well-controlled
from contamination, and actively cleansed.
• Cleanroom is a facility ordinarily utilized for scientific
research, chip manufacturing, and industrial productions
of microfabricated devices as well as pharmaceutical
agents.
• First used in surgery room to avoid bacteria
contamination
• Adopted in semiconductor industry in 1950
• Cleanroom is used to control particle count,
contaminants, and relative humidity to achieve more
efficiency in fabrication of devices with more
repeatability.
• Smaller devices needs higher grade clean room
• Particle kills the yield of the device
• In cleanroom we create artificial environment with low
particle counts.
Introduction to
Cleanroom Technology
Particles
• Device Dimensions ~ nm
• Dust Particle Size ~ typical size 1 µm
• Diameter of Human Hair ~ 70 microns
• So, dust is more than 100 times larger than the device.
So it will effect the performance of the devices.

Sources of Particles
• People working in the fabrication labs
• Particles generated by the process equipment
• Processing chemicals contributing particles
• Defect measurement or examining the surface of the
substrate is very useful
Class of the Cleanroom
• Clean rooms are classified according to the cleanliness level of the air inside the controlled
environment.
• The clean room class is the level of cleanliness the room complies with, according to the
quantity and size of particles per cubic meters of air.
• The primary authority is the ISO classification system ISO 14644-1. It is based on
International Organization of Standardization.
• This ISO standard includes these clean room classes : ISO 1, ISO 2, ISO 3, ISO 4, ISO 5,
ISO 6, ISO 7, ISO 8 and ISO 9.
• ISO 1 is the “cleanest” class and ISO 9 is the “dirtiest” class.
• Even if it’s classified as the “dirtiest” class, the ISO 9 clean room environment is cleaner
than a regular room.
• The most common ISO clean room classes are ISO 7 and ISO 8. The Federal Standard 209
( FS 209E ) equivalent for these ISO classes are Class 10,000 and Class 100 000.
• Clean rooms must also follow industry-specific and international standards.
Class of the Cleanroom
Components of the Cleanroom
HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) Filter
• Absorbs particles at the air inlet of the cleanroom
• Supplies the filtered air throughout the cleanroom to maintain
temperature, pressure and humidity with circulating air flow.
• HEPA filters are composed of a mat of randomly arranged fibers.
• The fibers are typically composed
of polypropylene or fiberglass with diameters between 0.5 and 2.0
micrometers.
• Most of the time, these filters are composed of tangled bundles of
fine fibers.
• These fibers create a narrow convoluted pathway through which air
passes.
• When the largest particles are passing through this pathway, the
bundles of fibers behave like a kitchen sieve which physically
blocks the particles from passing through.
• When smaller particles pass with the air, as the air twists and turns,
the smaller particles cannot keep up with the motion of the air and
thus they collide with the fibers.
Cleanroom Air Flow Structure
• The air is introduced and recirculated in the cleanroom after removing the dust particles
using HEPA filter.
• Usually, the filters and ducts are made of stainless steel or other non-shed materials to
ensure minimum number of particles.
• Unidirectional flow of air is maintained.
• Cleanroom is preferred to have positive pressure.
Sources of Contamination in a Cleanroom
• People: Skin flakes, oil, perfume, cosmetics, hair, lint, and fiber from clothes
• Materials: Aerosols, water, cleaning chemicals, wipers, tape, duster and stationery
• Tools: Friction generated particles, lubricants
• Product generated: Degassing, evaporation of chemicals

Restricted materials in a Cleanroom

• Normal paper, pencil, and fabrics from natural fibers
• Wet, dirty and dusty clothes
• Loose clothes and dangling jewellery

The surface materials used in cleanroom wall panels include melamine, painted
aluminum, stainless steel, glass, polycarbonate and vinyl-coated gypsum.
Gowning Procedure

Gloves
Components of the Cleanroom
Air Showers

• This implemented between cleanroom and outside

environment at the entrance.
• Air shower bombards the person with a flow of filtered
air to dislodge the particles and foreign objects from
hair, skin and clothing.
• Air showers are self-contained air recirculation systems
installed at entrances to cleanrooms and other controlled
environments.
• Since people and products are the main sources of
cleanroom contamination, these cleanroom entry
systems quickly and efficiently remove particulate
contaminants from workers or products before they enter
a clean space.
 Gowning Procedure
• Gowning procedure should be strictly followed in
the cleanroom for the person’s safety as well as to
save the fabricated devices from human generated
contaminations.
Components of the Cleanroom
Pass Through Windows

• This is used for material and samples transfer to and

from the cleanroom.
• The interlock ensures that only one door is opened.

Controlled Parameters

• Particle count
• Relative Humidity: Generally, RH is maintained
between 35-40% for semiconductor device
manufacturing cleanroom
• Temperature: Below 20℃, generally 16℃ to 19℃
 Gowning Procedure
• Face shield is compulsory while handling chemicals
in wet benches
• Working at wet benches:
Nitrile gloves
Mapa gloves
F-Teflon gloves
 De-ionized (DI Water)
• Deionized water, also called DI water, is purified water with a shallow ion content. That
means it does not contain any minerals like sodium or potassium ions in the form of salts.

• Normal water has dissolved

minerals and impurities
• DI water has a resistivity of
18 M ohm cm
• Regular water has a
resistivity of 0.004 M ohm
cm
Substrates