This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is focused on the development of a low-cost on-line sensor for rapid on-site analysis to measure trace metallic contaminants in process chemicals commonly used in semiconductor manufacturing. Detection and quantitation of trace heavy metal contamination in MOS integrated circuit fabrication is of great importance becoming even more critical as device geometries are scaled. At present, all such analyses are carried out off-line, involving sampling of process fluids and analysis using costly laboratory equipment, remote from the fab line. This approach causes lengthy and costly delays making on-line or at least `in-fab` methods extremely desirable. ChemTrace Corporation proposes to apply a novel anodic stripping voltammetry system to provide a low cost, on-line solution to this problem. Their approach involves a micromachined iridium microelectrode array on silicon and a single-chip, full-featured potentiostat which (when combined with a low-cost microcontroller chip) can be directly interfaced to a personal computer's serial port. This approach will reduce analysis latencies from many hours to minutes and provide unprecedented flexibility and early warning capability for contamination.
