Extraction Systems, Inc.

Entegris, Inc.

Mykrolis Corporation

Micronotes, Inc.

Other

Extraction System, Inc.

Devon A Kinkead

Oleg P Kishkovich

William M Goodwin

Anatoly Grayfer

David Ruede

Robert W Rezuke

Michael A Joffe

Venkat Rangamani

John C Gaudreau

John E Sergi

Mark C Phelps

John K Higley

William Goodwin

The present invention is a system which enables a marketing team to initiate and sustain directed and interactive communication with thousands or millions of existing or prospective customers. In the preferred embodiment, a marketer accesses a database and selects a group of qualified prospects, using lifestyle dimensions and or demographic information, from a stable group of prospective or existing customers conducting financial transactions online. Once a prospect list is selected, the marketer designs a series of questions, typically using branch and skip logic, and the system deploys the question sequence to the target list in the form of a response-redeemable savings coupon. When prospects are next performing their financial transactions online, they are presented with a lifestyle-relevant coupon which is immediately redeemable by responding to the question/communication.

Interactive marketing system

A filter includes at least two different adsorptive media. First, chemisorptive media, which is porous and includes an acidic functional group, is used to remove molecular bases, including ammonia, organic amines, imides and aminoalchols, from the atmosphere used in semiconductor fabrication and other processes that require uncontaminated gaseous environments of high quality. Second, physisorptive media is able to adsorb condensable contaminants, particularly those having a boiling point greater than 150 degrees C. The physisorptive media can include untreated, activated carbon.

Filters employing both acidic polymers and physical-adsorption media

The invention provides a system and method comprising an apparatus for removing contaminants from a gas in a semiconductor processing device, which can include a filter unit having at least two parallel filter stages located therein. The filter stages are designed to remove a least a portion of the contaminants present in the gas flowing through them. The apparatus can also include a flow controller for distributing the gas flow among the filter stages. In one embodiment, the controller may consist of a diffuser plate. The invention also provides a sampling tube orifice for gas flow control in a system or method of the invention. In another embodiment, an apparatus for removing contaminants from a gas in a clean room comprises a filter unit having at least two parallel filter stages, which are used to remove a portion of the contaminants in the gas as it passes through the apparatus.

System and method for removing contaminants

The present invention provides passive sampling systems and methods for monitoring contaminants in a semiconductor processing system. In one embodiment, that passive sampling system comprises a collection device in fluid communication with a sample line that provides a flow of gas from a semiconductor processing system. The collection device is configured to sample by diffusion one or more contaminants in the flow of gas.

System and method for monitoring contamination

A clean, high efficiency, low pressure drop, adsorptive filter material that is porous and includes an acidic functional group. The filter can include, for example, a non-woven filter composite has a porous sulfonated divinyl benzene styrene copolymer beads having sulfonic acid functional side groups. The non-woven filter is used to remove molecular bases, including ammonia, organic amines, inides, aminoalcohols, alcoholoamines from the atmosphere used in semiconductor fabrication and other processes that require uncontaminated gaseous environments of high quality.

Filters employing porous strongly acidic polymers

A filter includes at least two different adsorptive media. First, chemisorptive media, which is porous and includes an acidic functional group, is used to remove molecular bases, including ammonia, organic amines, imides and aminoalcohols, from the atmosphere used in semiconductor fabrication and other processes that require uncontaminated gaseous environments of high quality. Second, physisorptive media is able to adsorb condensable contaminants, particularly those having a boiling point greater than 150 degrees C. The physisorptive media can include untreated, activated carbon.

Methods using filters employing both acidic polymers and physical-adsorption media

A preferred embodiment includes a method for monitoring the performance of a filter positioned in an airstream in a semiconductor processing system. The method includes sampling the airstream at a location upstream of the filter to detect the molecular contaminants present in the airstream; identifying a target species of the contaminants upstream; selecting a non-polluting species of a contaminant having a concentration greater than a concentration of the target species; measuring the non-polluting species in the airstream at a plurality of locations; and determining the performance of the filter with respect to the target species from measurements of the non-polluting species. The plurality of locations includes a location downstream of the filter and at a location within the filter. Further, the method for monitoring includes generating a numerical representation of a chromatogram of the airstream sampled at a location upstream of the filter. The method for monitoring includes the non-polluting species having a molecular weight that is lower than that of the target species. In addition, in the method for monitoring the step of sampling includes collecting refractory compounds, high molecular weight compounds and low molecular weight compounds. The filter comprises absorptive material.

System and method for determining and controlling contamination

A system and method for determining and removing contamination recognizes the need to determine contamination caused by a plurality of contaminants which includes refractory compounds, high molecular weight compounds and low molecular compounds operating at different rates. The system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a collection device that emulates the environment of the surfaces of certain optical elements. The method for determining and preferably removing contamination includes maintaining an extended duration sampling time to enable the collection of a desirable mass of high molecular weight compounds. In a preferred embodiment, the collection device is operated past a breakthrough capacity to quantitatively measure high molecular weight compounds and other contaminants.

A detection system for detecting base contamination at low concentrations in gas, for instance to protect a sensitive process, characterized in that the detection system is constructed to examine multiple amines in gas to produce a reading stoichiometrically related to the proton bonding characteristic of the multiple amines present, the detection system comprising at least two channels through which a gas to be examined passes, an amines remover located in one of the channels, at least one thermal/catalytic converter which discharges NO for each channel, and at least one chemiluminescent NO detector, whereby the total amine concentration is determined from the difference between the detected signals for the channels.

Protection of semiconductor fabrication and similar sensitive processes

A system for detection of base contamination at low concentrations in air comprises a detector that provides a single reading that is stoichiometrically related to the aggregate proton-bonding characteristic of various base contaminants present in the air. The system can operate as a 'total amine detector' for air-borne amines, and in important implementations is employed in semiconductor manufacturing, e.g. in respect of incoming or exhaust air from a cleanroom or in respect of the stepper or coat and develop track of a photolithographic process. The system comprises a converter for converting all amines present in the air to a common detectable compound detected by the detector. In various implementations additional features are shown. The converter is located near a sample region of a process and the detector is remotely located with sample lines extending between converter and detector to conduct a sample flow. Filters provide air free of amine contaminants to various stages of a process. The air from the outlet of the filters is employed to provide zero air for calibration of the converter and detector. Continual, automated recalibration is shown. Air from the intermediate port of the filters and air from the outlet are employed to monitor the remaining filter capacity and to verify the fidelity of the zero air reference. In other implementations, the detection system is constructed as a mobile detection unit. In another implementation, the detection system is constructed to monitor total amine concentration at selected stages of a multistage manufacturing process.

System for detecting base contaminants in air

A scheme for monitoring the performance of a gas-phase filter in which upstream and downstream detection surfaces are exposed to upstream and downstream air so that molecular contamination may respectively form non-volatile residue thereon, and the performance of the air filter is determined based on the ratio of the amount of non-volatile residue respectively forming on the upstream and downstream detection surfaces. In another embodiment, a first electrical signal is provided representative of the amount of non-volatile residue forming on the upstream detection surface, a second electrical signal is provided representative of the amount of non-volatile residue forming on the downstream detection surface, and the performance of the air filter is determined in real-time based on the first and second electrical signals that are provided. The detection surfaces of the upstream and downstream detectors may be selected so that the mass of non-volatile residue forming thereon may be determined, either in real-time or by subsequent chemical analysis.

Growing community of inventors

Cumberland, RI, United States of America

Devon A Kinkead