The gases used in the electronics industry are often the same molecules used in other industrial gases. For example: oxygen, argon or nitrogen. The difference is that they will be supplied at an extremely high purity. Whilst an industrial grade of nitrogen might be 99.98% pure, nitrogen supplied to the electronics sector might be 99.9999% pure. Additional purification stages are often required to produce the electronic grade gases from normal industrial gases. Alternatively, dedicated electronics grade ASU’s are built. These are more expensive to construct and more expensive to operate than regular industrial grade ASU’s. Process control instrumentation on these plants and the final QC stages for the measurement of impurities in these ultra-high purity gases is done using highly specialised analytical techniques and highly specialised gas analyzers with very low detection limits. The LGR-ICOS off-axis Integrated-cavity-output-spectroscopy instrumentation supplied by ABB is also suitable for this application.
In addition to high purity air gases, there are a wide range of specialty chemical cylinder gases used in the electronics industry such as silane, ammonia, hydrogen bromide and trichlorosilane. The supply chain for these gases is highly specialised with manufacturing taking place at chemicals producers and the industrial gases companies engaging in purification and bulk breaking operations in a few global plants that then distribute the gas cylinders internationally. These chemical gases are used in the of silicon chips. The waste gases flowing out of the production cells must be cleaned up before emission to the environment and sophisticated gas abatement systems are used for this purpose. These systems also require analytical instrumentation for process control and to ensure that emissions gases are clean and contain very low levels of hazardous gases. With such a diverse range of specialist applications, a conversation with your local ABB representative about your gas analysis requirements is surely the best way forward.