Semiconductor temperature control systems and humidity regulation

November 25, 2020

Our semiconductor environment control capabilities

To accommodate our customers who develop and manufacture semiconductors, our customized environmental control units (ECUs) facilitate stringent temperature and humidity tolerances include the following:

Control tolerances of +/- 0.02° C
Setpoint temperature ranges between 19° C and 23° C
Relative humidity tolerances of +/- 0.5% RH
Airflow ranges up to 4,000 CFM

The photomasks used in semiconductor lithography require cleaning and repair using a process known as nanomachining, which uses interferometry to scan for defects in need of repair. Minor differentiations in the surrounding temperatures during wafer scanning can produce highly inaccurate readings. Our ECUs stabilize these readings by providing temperature variations within the range of 0.02° C.

Semiconductor system design considerations

Given customer specifications, our expert team can design and build an ECU system to meet the needs of virtually any semiconductor manufacturing application. We offer a wide range of ECU solutions, including off-the-shelf, semi-custom and fully custom units in standalone or mounted configurations.

From initial design to delivery of a complete system, our team can focus on one of two key design factors: flexibility or future requirements. By designing an ECU system with flexibility in mind, the customer is better able to accommodate any alterations that may be required or desired in the future, such as new technologies or expanded capacities. By anticipating future requirements when designing the system now, the customer is less likely to require any alterations to meet changing needs or wants.

Which of the two factors we focus on depends on the customer:

If the customer knows what the state of their business and customer demand will be in the future, an over-spec design is most suitable.
If the customer expects more variable future trends, a flexible design is more appropriate.

Temperature and humidity control solutions

Air Innovations provides custom ECUs with precise temperature and humidity levels to meet the specific needs of each client’s application. Our ECUs are vertical or horizontally shaped and sized to fit inside or adjacent to the fabrication environment. ECUs from Air Innovations uses the most advanced ULPA filters with the capacity to remove 99.999% of particles larger than 0.12 μm, combined with molecular filtration at the highest level of sensitivity to prevent harmful gases from affecting critical processes.

Temperature and humidity control are critical elements in semiconductor development and fabrication. Precise levels of environmental factors are necessary for the longevity and performance of semiconductor devices.

Other important requirements for some design engineers in semiconductor applications include: