Electrostatic discharge could become a thing of the past with new material
Precision Polymer Engineering (PPE), a manufacturer of advanced sealing components for the semiconductor industry, has announced that it is to launch the world's first elastomeric material, for the manufacture of end effector pads, designed to tackle the problem of electrostatic discharge.
PPE is launching the range of dissipative end effector pad materials at SEMICON West 2014 which takes place in San Francisco, July 8 -10.
With each new technology node and as feature sizes continue to shrink, devices have become more susceptible to electrostatic discharge (ESD) events. Electrostatic build up on substrates can also initiate electrostatic attraction of airborne particles with the obvious potential to degrade wafer yield. Electrostatic controls are required across all areas of the manufacturing environment from clean room management through to the use of appropriate materials within process tools.
The elastomer materials developed by PPE have been characterized to be electrostatically dissipative allowing the slow, safe release of any built up charge minimizing the likelihood of an ESD event. The dissipative properties of the elastomers have been achieved without the use of metallic based fillers such as silver, nickel or copper which can lead to undesirable mobile ion contamination of substrates and to changes in device characteristics.
Paul Gillyon, managing director of PPE added, "ESD has been a growing problem for the semiconductor industry, our own research indicates that ESD is costing the electronic component manufacturing industry $billions per year in product failures. Whilst it's difficult to calculate the loss to the wafer manufacturers, this is still likely to be one of the biggest costs they incur. We have been listening to our customers and researching ways to increase the profitability of their businesses and we believe this is another significant breakthrough. These new products and materials are a world first and will go a long way to increasing wafer yield and profitability for our global customers"
