The Removal of Airborne Molecular Contamination in Cleanroom Using PTFE and Chemical Filters

Abstract—Cleanroom contamination and its impact on the performance of devices are beginning to be investigated due to the increasing sensitivity of the semiconductor manufacturing process to airborne molecular contamination (AMC). A clean bench was equipped with different filter modules and then most AMC in the cleanroom and in the clean bench was detected through air-sampling and wafer-sampling experiments. Additionally, the effect of AMC on device performance was examined by electrical characterization. A combination of the NEUROFINE PTFE filter and chemical filters was found to control metal, organic, and inorganic contamination. We believe that the new combination of filters can be used to improve the manufacturing environment of devices, which are being continuously shrunk to the nanometer scale. Index Terms—Airborne molecular contamination, chemical filter, glass fiber filter, PTFE filter. I