Faster vacuums = faster production
Challenge
Semi-conductors are manufactured using precision instrumentation in a clean-room environment, as even a single speck of dust can lead to the failure of a high-value product. As components on semi-conductor processors get ever smaller and more sensitive to contamination, there is an increasing requirement to manufacture in a vacuum chamber – the ultimate clean-room.
The faster a high-quality vacuum can be established, the quicker manufacturing processes can begin, so faster cycling of air in and out of a vacuum chamber improves productivity. This not only requires accurate measurements of very low pressures at or near the vacuum, but also measurements of rapidly-changing pressures as air is pumped out. Until recently, vacuum measurement standards, used to calibrate industrial instrumentation, were only applicable in static pressure conditions, not the dynamic, rapidly-changing pressures used in high-value production processes.
Solution
The EMRP project Vacuum metrology for production environments developed a new vacuum gauge calibration facility capable of providing a well-defined rapid change in pressure, from 100 kPa down to 100 Pa in just 23 milliseconds. This exceeds even the most-demanding current industry requirements and is a huge technological advance. It is now possible, for the first time, to perform SI traceable dynamic pressure calibrations under conditions encountered by sensors in industrial applications.
Impact
INFICON, a Swiss manufacturer of world-class instruments for gas analysis, used the new facility to test the prototype of its innovative new gauge for measuring dynamic pressure. The facility enabled INFICON to demonstrate the gauge’s high-speed reaction to rapidly-changing pressures. INFICON’s new Stripe™ High-speed Capacitance Diaphragm Gauge has a response time twenty times faster than the previous model and the facility validated the manufacturer’s claim that it is the ‘fastest gauge in the world’.
Access to the new facility helped accelerate the development of the new gauge and contributed to three patent applications. It is estimated that several million Euro in increased sales will result from the introduction of this new vacuum gauge. The fastresponse gauge enables rapid analysis of vacuum chambers and will enable INFICON’s customers in the semi-conductor sector to improve productivity by evacuating vacuum chambers effectively and quickly. This will lead to reduced time between production runs while continuing to ensure product quality. INFICON expects to extend the market for these fast pressure gauges to its customers in industrial vacuum coating and solar panel and display manufacturing.
- Category
- EMRP,
- Industry,