Addressing environment, health and safety in semiconductor processdevelopment

摘要

Motorola has traditionally focused on cost, yield, performance,and logistics as primary drivers for decision-making. In thesemiconductor industry, environment, health and safety (EHS) issues haveresulted in major modifications of tools and process steps, as well asthe addition of environmental controls to the facility, because they arenot routinely considered when making process design and manufacturingchoices, nor is their impact on cost, yield, and cycle time. Certainbusiness driving forces, such as cost, sustainability ofprocesses/tools, time to market, market access, and market share, areleading Motorola to a cultural change in which EHS impacts must beconsidered during product and process design; however, design andprocess engineers have not been able to adequately address theseimpacts. Motorola's Advanced Process Research and Development Laboratory(APRDL) in the Semiconductor Product Sector (SPS) has recognized thisand has established its own environmental group (separate from the siteEHS compliance group) to implement a Design for EHS (DFEHS) strategy.The APRDL environmental group works with several project teams toaddress EHS issues in process development. These teams have beeninvestigating copper metallization, wet cleans processes and tools, andother areas to ensure that the long-term EHS implications are identifiedand addressed before a process is transferred or a tool set recommendedto a manufacturing fab. To empower engineers to consider, on their own,the EHS impacts of their materials and processes at the earliestpossible stage, the APRDL environmental group has developed a DFEHStraining course. This self-instructed, web-based course targetssemiconductor design and process engineers and is available throughMotorola University, the corporate training institution. The group hasalso established a procedure for approving new materials for thedevelopment lab in which EHS criteria are included