Modular Fluid Delivery System Architectures Drive Configurability Options, Enhance Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Productivity, and Improve Process Performance

Modular gas delivery systems replaced conventional gas panels in the semiconductor capital equipment industry for “dry” manufacturing processes. Modular gas delivery systems were adopted for many benefits over conventional system designs. These benefits include smaller size / footprint, easily customizable configurability, ease of maintenance, and increased equipment productivity. From our position as a gas panel supplier to major dry processing equipment manufacturers we have observed and responded to the customer-driven conversion to modular gas delivery systems. We present here details about the industry’s conversion from conventional to modular architecture and three areas of focus of development on the modular system architecture: serviceability, sealing mechanisms, and contamination control. In parallel to system-level work, the importance of component performance improvement shall not be neglected. From conventional to modular architecture, the use of mixer and mixing performance are critical in wafer manufacturing, yet it is often overlooked in equipment design and characterization. Among all component development and characterization, we would like to highlight our modular mixer development and testing work, including discussion on impact of mixer performance on wafer production processes, our modeling approach in mixer design, and test data for validation.