CS CLEAN SYSTEMS Waste Gas Abatement System in Mapper E-Beam Lithography Technology

Image of Product CLEANSORB® for Waste gas treatment
CLEANSORB® from CS CLEAN SYSTEMS

In 2014 the exhaust gas abatement system CLEANSORB® from CS CLEAN SYSTEMS was installed at the Russian MAPPER MEMS production plant for electron beam lithography.

MAPPER Lithography, founded out of Delft University of Technology, is a Delft-based company focusing on the introduction of a groundbreaking maskless lithography infrastructure for the semiconductor industry. Its tools utilize an innovative multiple e-beam technology with which next generation semiconductors can be manufactured more cost effectively. Whereas traditional optical lithography technology requires the use of a costly mask (up to €2 million per chip module), MAPPER’s machines eliminate its necessity. Especially end-users of chips made in relatively low volumes, such as chips for mobile phones and cars, benefit from a maskless solution, since the mask costs are dominating the total costs. The e-beam technology combines high resolution and high productivity – up to 100 wafers per hour – with a lower cost in production.

In 2012 Russian Corporation RUSNANO along with other funds invested in the company MAPPER Lithography. RUSNANO’s investment part was used to establish a manufacturing site in Russia for MAPPER’s lens components. The micro electromechanical (MEMS)-based lens components system, one of MAPPER’s major innovations, can ultimately operate with more than 13,260 parallel electron beams simultaneously. The Russian MEMS fab is opened in a new Russian high technology center Technopolis Moscow, located on the territory of the former car factory in close proximity from the Moscow city center.

MEMS elements manufacturing, as well as any other high-tech semiconductor production, involves the use of special process gases, whereas the majority of them are pyrophoric, toxic, or corrosive. Thus, safety of personnel and protection of the environment are matters of the highest priority. Therefore, the exhaust gas abatement system CLEANSORB® from CS CLEAN SYSTEMS, which has more than 25 years of experience in semiconductor industry, was installed at the new MEMS plant.

The CLEANSORB® waste gas abatement system removes hazardous process gases on the basis of chemical conversion (chemisorption) to stable salts at ambient temperature. No external heating, moisturisation, or other facilities are required for operation. Hence, the CLEANSORB® system is fully passive, and is permanently on stand-by, even in the event of a power- or other facilities failure. In addition, an important factor in choosing this particular system was the fact that the maintenance and refilling of used-up modules CLEANSORB is carried out in Moscow by Russian authorized personnel from Sigm Plus Co.