Extraction Systems, Inc.

Extraction System, Inc.

Michael A Joffe

Devon A Kinkead

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.

Performance monitoring of gas-phase air filters

A scheme for defining, inside a processing facility, a storage environment that is substantially free of a targeted molecular contaminant and in which one or more substrates are to be stored for a period of time before or after a substrate processing step; the scheme including: an air blower for providing a flow of air within a storage environment defined inside a processing facility; a substrate support for holding one or more substrates inside the storage environment; and a molecular air filter having an input face positioned to receive air from the blower and having an output face for providing a flow of filtered air inside the storage environment, the molecular air filter being constructed and arranged to remove an airborne molecular contaminant from air flowing into the storage environment to achieve a concentration level of the molecular contaminant inside the storage environment suitable for storing one or more substrates therein for a sit time corresponding to the time before a subsequent substrate processing step; wherein the storage environment is substantially free of the targeted airborne molecular contaminant. Schemes for defining substrate storage environments for semiconductor device fabrication processes are also disclosed.

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Millis, MA, United States of America

Michael A Joffe