Temperature Control Solutions in Semiconductor Industry

 

The semiconductor industry has extremely high requirements for temperature control, especially in wafer manufacturing, packaging testing, lithography, etching, ion implantation and other links. Slight changes in temperature will affect product yield and process stability. The following are several main temperature control solutions:

1. Liquid circulation temperature control

Principle: Accurately adjust the temperature of the equipment or process by circulating cooling liquid or heating liquid (such as water, oil, fluorinated liquid, etc.).

Application: lithography machine, etching machine, CVD/PVD equipment, wafer detection equipment, etc.

Typical solution:

Circulating cooling system (Chiller): Use coolant to adjust the temperature.

Heat exchange system: Use heat exchanger to control temperature gradient.

2. Thermoelectric cooling (TEC, Peltier cooling)

Principle: Based on the Peltier effect, semiconductor materials are used to convert heat and cold under the action of electric current.

Application: Precision optical equipment, detectors, lasers, wafer detection systems, etc.

Advantages:

Precise temperature control (within ±0.1°C).

No need for refrigerant, environmentally friendly.

Small size, fast response speed.

3. Electric heating solution

Principle: Rapid heating by means of resistance heating, infrared heating, induction heating, etc.

Application:

Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP): Rapid heating of silicon wafers to improve material properties.

CVD/PVD equipment: Temperature control during chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or physical vapor deposition (PVD).

Wafer testing: Precise temperature control is required during chip testing.

4. Gas temperature control

Principle: Uniform temperature control is achieved by controlling the temperature of nitrogen, helium or other inert gases.

Application:

Plasma etching: Stable temperature control of the process chamber.

Lithography machine: Temperature control of the lens and mask.

Wafer handling system: Prevent condensation or thermal expansion caused by temperature changes.

5. Phase change temperature control

Principle: Use phase change materials (such as paraffin, alloys, etc.) to absorb or release heat to achieve constant temperature control.

Application:

Equipment with extreme temperature stability requirements.

Storage of materials that require constant temperature, such as photoresists and chemical reagents.

6. Vacuum environment temperature control

Principle: Reduce heat transfer interference and improve temperature control accuracy through vacuum insulation or internal heat source regulation.

Application:

High-precision detection equipment (such as electron microscopes).

Plasma processes in semiconductor manufacturing (reduce the impact of temperature drift).

Different temperature control solutions have different focuses in specific applications in the semiconductor industry, and usually require a combination of multiple methods to ensure high stability and high yield of the process. Are you interested in a temperature control solution for a specific application, or do you need to optimize for a certain device?