A Study for the Particle Characteristics and the Validation of Breather Port Performance of 300mm Wafer FOUP/LPU Systems

91

A minienvironment system combined with FOUP (Front Opening Unified Pod) and LPU(Load Port Unit) is the main wafer transmission equipment in 300mm wafer manufacturing processes. FOUP is used to held and transport of wafers, while LPU is used to open the side door of FOUP and makes the wafer stored in FOUP can be loaded into the production machine through a robot arm. During the operating procedures, some problems need to be placed importance on. For example, whether the particles produced by colliding with FOUP and the joint surface of minienvironment will enter the system? Whether the negative pressure produced by instant action of opening side door of FOUP will make the particles outside of system contaminate the wafers? If FOUP equipped with a breather port, can FOUP exclude the particles outside of system? These all are the key technical bottlenecks. Using a manometer, an oxygen detector and several particle counters, this thesis establishes a complete testing process to practically estimate the particle problems under various conditions. In addition, using oxygen detector and air compressor, the leakage characteristics of the FOUPs were quantitatively determined.