FOUP FOSB cleaning cleaner
Polyflow

Polyflow Engineering is represented* by
Crystec Technology Trading GmbH

 Crystec
content cce email English   deutsch    francais
Company Overview   Quartz cleaning   FOUP cleaning   Vertical furnace   Horizontal furnace

Cassette, SMIF, FOUP cleaner

In semiconductor processing it is necessary to operate under very clean conditions. Therefore production is done in a clean room. Silicon wafers are handled in special plastic cassettes. Still, people have to work in the clean room and although they have to wear special clean room clothes, they introduce particles in the clean room. In order to improve the cleanliness of the semiconductor production, a so called mini-environment has been introduced. This means that the wafers are no longer handled in open cassettes, but in closed, clean boxes which are only opened inside the processing equipment, e.g. a vertical furnace, a horizontal furnace, or an RTP tool. These are just a few examples.
open silicon wafer cassette
 SMIF box
 FOSB transport box
 FOUP
200mm open cassette
 200mm SMIF box
 300mm FOSB box
 300mm FOUP box

For 200mm wafers, either open cassette or SMIF boxes have been used. SMIF stands for Standard Mechanical InterFace and those boxes include an open cassette which is unloaded through the bottom of the SMIF pod. For 300mm silicon wafers, the design of the mini environment boxes has been changed and so called FOUP boxes (Front Opening Unified Pod) are now state of the art. These boxes are opened from the front side and the equipment robot unloads the wafers directly from the FOUP. There are also more simple boxes available just for transport, so called FOSB (Front Opening Shipping Box).

All these cassettes, SMIF, FOSB and FOUP pods have to be kept very clean and this requires frequent cleaning. Polyflow can offer machines for all types of handling cassettes.

FOUP FOSB cleaner

FOUP / FOSB purifying system

Tapping our parts and container cleaning experience, Polyflow's Engineering, LLC has developed the worlds most advanced FOUP and FOSB cleaning system. While cleaning these 300 mm vehicles by using ultra pure water seems to be rather simple, drying them proves to be quite a challenge. Many systems have been designed to use centrifugal force to remove the water. While centrifugal force is efficient for removing water droplets, the drawbacks with this method are significant.
Spinning the FOUP's and FOSB's at high speed can create reliability and safety issues. It also can cause increased particle counts due to the high speed moving mechanism. In addition, it is almost impossible to spin at high speeds without the use of metallic components, which could cause ion  contamination beyond what might be normally accepted for this process. Damage to the FOUP's and FOSB's can also be a significant issue with high-speed centrifugal force.
The Polyflow MS-277 utilizes engineered and tested dynamic nozzle assemblies for world-class cleaning and droplet purging. We move the nozzles, not the FOUP's. Once the large water droplets are removed, heated ULPA filtered laminar flow provides the final drying. No exposed metals are used in the process stream. Therefore, the concern for ion contamination is almost non-existent. The FOUP and FOSB doors are bi-directionally rotated slowly so that the ultra pure water nozzles, and purge nozzles reach the entire surface of the inside and outside of the doors. ULPA filtered laminar flow also provides the final dry for the doors.
The machine utilizes a 6 axis ultra clean Stäubli robot for removing the doors and loading the process chambers. Very high throughput of cleaning 27 FOUPs and associated doors  per hour (dry to dry) at low facility consumption.
SMIF cleaner

SMIF pod purifier

The MultiSpec Purifying System 280 is a batch processor for removing particulates and light organics from cassettes, boxes and SMIF pods. High-pressure targeted sprays of heated or ambient ultra pure water rapidly remove contamination. If stubborn soils are present, simply program the built-in surfactant system to draw from the on-board tank. During the dry cycle, nitrogen quickly blows off most of the water. Next, HEPA filtered air is recirculated and efficiently heated to gently yet thoroughly remove residual moisture.
When the items are dry, a cool down cycle returns them to ambient, all within 60 minutes. The non-contaminating all plastic interior can be configured to handle a variety of parts from 150 through 300 mm. Load capacities vary based upon part sizes.

Process control

A state of the art touch screen controller makes operation of the tool easy. The system runs on a Pentium IV based PC with the latest Windows operating system, and is protected by 3 levels of password security. Operation and maintenance manuals, function charts, and system drawings are stored on the system hard drive and displayed on the touch screen for easy fab access.The entire system history is archived and logged with date and time stamp for all the events. Operational data can be exported in ASCII format for process analysis. Virtually unlimited numbers of recipes and programs can be easily developed and stored in the system by simple commands.

controller
  • Visual Logic Controller
  • Intuitive Graphical User Interface
  • Icons/graphics on screen
  • Pentium IV
  • Windows Operating System
  • Process and safety functions
  • Paperless Manuals
  • Function charts
  • Error log
  • Inputs/outputs
 screen shot  software

Materials

All main parts of the equipment are made from polypropylen and PVC parts. Fire safe material CPVC and PVDF can be used.

* We represent Polyflow together with MDC Switzerland. We are responsible for Germany, Austria and northern Europe.

Crystec Technology Trading GmbH will be pleased to further discuss details with you.
contentContent
Page
 emailAre you interested in further information?
Please contact us! 		top of pageTop of
Page