IC's manufacturing trends

Abstract

Three concepts for clean rooms for manufacturing integrated circuits are discussed. These are a robotic cart system, a cassette track system, and the SMIF system, in which wafers are transported and loaded in tight boxes. The cart system is criticized as only slightly reducing the number of people in the clean room, and hence only slightly improving the cleanliness. The cassette track system is seen as a major improvement in cleanliness, but is not flexible; the SMIF system leaves particles in an electrostatic field to stick on the wafers. It is concluded that none of these technologies is ideal for clean-room manufacturing.<>