The Response of Safe Delivery Source (SDS®) Absorbent Type Package to Fire Exposures and Their Benefit Over High-Pressure Alternatives
Weihang Guan and Jim McManus
Safety is an essential consideration for ion implant processes, which use toxic, corrosive, flammable, and hazardous gases to produce electronic devices. The Entegris Safe Delivery Source (SDS®) absorbent type package has provided leading subatmospheric specialty gas storage and delivery solutions in the semiconductor industry for more than twenty years. The SDS platform with special engineered porous carbon adsorbent, reliable cylinder package components provides a safe method to store and deliver different highly toxic specialty gas sub-atmospherically.
Semiconductor processing facilities inherently involve fire hazards due to flammable solvent/vapor, energetic materials, uncontroled storage conditions, and other general hazards. Phosphorus is one of the most common dopants, which is extremely flammable, and some forms of solid phosphorus deposits are pyrophoric. Fire hazards are controlled to a degree which allows semiconductor manufactured with safety devices and interlocks. However, improper maintenance operations, flammable gas release, phosphorus contamination, and hydrogen contained in cryopumps can cause fire hazards in the semiconductor processing facility.
This presentation will highlight the response of our packaging technologies of SDS® specialty gas cylinders to various fire exposures and show how they can drastically reduce the risk versus high-pressure alternatives and other subatmospheric cylinder technologies. The risk of fire exposure was evaluated by measuring the time to cylinder failure, internal cylinder pressure, and the blast pressure wave resulting from the cylinder’s explosion, which can be correlated to biological and structural effects. It will also highlight new valve design