The Impact Of TOC In UPW Systems For The Electronics Industry

"Water, water everywhere...Not a drop that's pure".

Water is the most common reagent used by mankind. Ultrapure water is the most voracious and aggressive solvent employed by the Electronics industry in the cleaning and production of wafers.

During the past four decades the electronics industry has exponentially increased the number of circuits that are etched onto silicon chips. The increase in the number of circuits has significantly decreased the line-widths. Thereby, increasing by magnitudes the requirements for accurate and continuous measurement of the UPW system.

Semiconductor manufacturing processes have some of the most stringent specifications for ionic and organic contamination in pure and Ultrapure water systems. Managing and measuring these contaminants in their UPW systems has enabled semiconductor manufacturers to improve product quality and maximize yields. Advances in water purification technology and innovations in instrumentation for monitoring these contaminants have played a significant role in improving and measuring the quality of Ultrapure water. These advances, in turn, have driven lower specifications for all contaminant levels in UPW systems.

Total organic carbon (TOC) analysis is a powerful technique for monitoring organic contaminants in Ultrapure water and the ‘health' of the UPW system. Over the past few decades, specifications for TOC have decreased by several orders of magnitude, resulting in specifications in the low-parts-per-billion range and moving to the parts-pertrillion detection level. As future-generation chip technology is projected to reach narrower line-widths, the semiconductor manufacturers continue to demand their Ultrapure water not only contains ever-lower levels of organic and ionic contamination, but the instrumentation is capable of accurate and fast detection and response.