New Requirements from SEMI S30-0719: Characterizing Energetic Materials for use in Semiconductor R&D and Manufacturing Processes
Michael Carolan
(DEKRA Process Safety)
The recently published SEMI Standard S30-0719, “Safety Guideline for Use Of Energetic Materials In Semiconductor R&D And Manufacturing Processes,” provides guidelines to serve as a minimum set of safety criteria for the procurement, storage, handling, and use of energetic materials in the semiconductor industry. Conformance to these guidelines will help eliminate hazards and control risks when energetic materials are used by implementing industry best practices. A central provision of this new standard is the definition and classification of energetic materials. The standard defines an energetic material as being hazardously exothermic, pyrophoric, water reactive, or a material that reacts with air or water to form a product with one of those properties. The standard sets thresholds for when these classifications apply, and establishes a comprehensive process to collect and transmit hazard information for energetic materials to various stakeholders for ensuring employee safety, distribution safety, and effective product stewardship. For well-studied chemicals, the properties of the material will be readily available and material classification can be done easily. However, since many novel materials are introduced to semiconductor industry each year, the information needed to classify many materials will not be known. Testing and related safety documentation may be required to generate the data that will allow classification of a material, and to adequately communicate the hazard information recommended by the standard. Since the SEMI standard applies to R&D operations as well as manufacturing, the hazardous properties of a material need to be measured very early in a material’s life cycle. This presentation will provide an overview of the new SEMI standard, review the energetic material classification process, and detail the information required in the Energetic Material Dossier recommended in Section 10 of the standard. Energetic material classification flowcharts will also be introduced and reviewed.