Impact of particles in ultra pure water on random yield loss in IC production

The influence of environmental particle contamination on offline measured defects and manufacturing yield in integrated circuits is discussed. One of the sources of particle contamination is ultra pure water used in different production tools at different stages of processing. Particle count data measured in ultra pure water is compared with the offline defects caused by process tools and the relation has been statistically confirmed. Particle count data is also compared with the defect density of large size products. An impact of particle contamination on yield of 4-6% has been found. In this study, fundamentals are provided to define the meaningful specifications of ultra pure water for wafer fabrication.