SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY

Wafer Production

One key part of wafer production is CMP (Chemical Mechanical Planarisation). Our KATflow clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeters can determine the volumes of the abrasive and corrosive slurry used during this process to grind flat and remove microscopic features on a wafer.
Portable and stationary flowmeters can also play an important role during wet cleaning carried out at numerous steps of semiconductor production. Our instruments can measure the flow of every liquid used during these processes, including acids, solvents, surfactants and deionised water.

Circuit Board Production

The majority of printed circuit boards are made by bonding a layer of copper over the entire board from which subsequently unwanted copper is removed (subtractive method) leaving only the desired copper traces.

This method can be broken down into further techiques. During silk screen printing for instance, an ultrasonic flowmeter measures volume flow of etch-resistant inks used to protect the copper foil. Furthermore, clamp-on meters can also measure the amount of the acids used to remove the unwanted copper.

Another essential part in nearly every chemical process step of the CB production is rinsing. It is often thought that this process requires little attention to function properly. However, ineffective rinsing can cause problems such as increasing the number of rejects and costs for waste water treatment.

Efficient rinsing has several advantages. First of all, it will prolong the bath life. A rinsing system that effectively removes enough process solution can also decrease chemical costs and ease the burden on waste treatment systems. A clamp-on flowmeter is an ideal tools to check the volumes of used rinsing liquids and therefore can provide valuable information on how processes can be made more efficient.