Wet bench reactive hazards of cleaning stages in semiconductor manufacturing processes

According to the research from FM Global (Factory Mutual Insurance Company), most of the incidents that have occurred in semiconductor plants in the past two decades were reported as “Fire Cases”. They claim that the fires in wet chemical cleaning processes were mainly caused by heater failure. However, depending on the process conditions, electrical heaters are designed to turn off automatically when the temperature reaches a set point. Therefore, a thorough study of the situations related to possible fires in wet chemical cleaning processes is necessary.

This study focused on the incompatible behaviors of cleaning materials used in the wet bench stage. These results can be applied to determine the causes of fires in the wet bench stage from using reactive chemicals for cleaning purposes.

Another purpose of this study was to investigate the potential hazards of widely used chemicals (hydrogen peroxide, concentrated sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid and isopropyl alcohol) within similar processes in semiconductor plants. Experimental data were also verified in order to establish a concentration triangular diagram, which could be used to identify a combustion, deflagration or even detonation zone. Finally, this study can provide basic design data for an inherently safer process to avoid potential hazards caused by dangerous mixtures, which may result in large property loss in semiconductor plants.