Japan Update: SEMI Standards Technical Education Program (STEP) on 450 mm Wafer at SEMICON Japan 2012

By Hirofumi Kanno, SEMI Japan

A SEMI Standards Technical Education Program (STEP) on 450 mm wafers was held on December 7 in Makuhari, in conjunction with SEMICON Japan 2012. This program aimed to give clear and detailed explanations about published 450 mm Standards. This also introduced the latest developments in 450 mm activities, including standardization of physical interfaces and other interoperability-related specifications for the 450 mm (vacuum) process modules and transfer modules of cluster tools, and standardization of load port for the tape frame cassettes for the 450 mm packaging process. It drew more than 60 participants.

Key Topics:

• Overall Concepts of 450 mm SEMI Standards/Shoji Komatsu, Acteon Corporation
• SEMI G88 and SEMI G92 on 450 mm Packaging Process/Yukinori Murakami, Lintec Corporation
• Explanations of 450 mm Silicon Wafer Standards (M1, M62, M74, M76)/Tetsuya Nakai, SUMCO Corporation
• Explanation of Standard (M49) & Study with Measurement Result/Kaoru Naoi, Precision Industries Ltd.
• Explanations for 450 mm FOUP (E158), 450 mm FOSB (M80)/Akira Kashimoto, Shin-Etsu Polymer Co., Ltd.
• Explanations for 450 mm Load Port / Tsutomu Okabe, TDK Corporation
• 450 mm PM Physical Interface Standard Activity/Sensho Kobayashi, Tokyo Electron Ltd.

Background of SEMI Standards 450 mm Activity

The purpose to make large-diameter of the wafer is reduction of the IC Chip production cost. The production of 450 mm was mentioned in ITRS (International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors) of the version in 2003 when started in 2012. In SEMICON WEST of July 2007, the guidelines on 19 items for next-generation factories were announced by ISMI (International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative). At that time, requests about 450mm was included in the guidelines. 450mm SEMI Standards activity has started to develop standards in 2007 in time for the start of mass production in 2012.

The image above shows where 450mm standards development is taking place.

Latest Published 450mm Standards:

All of the published standards in this article are available in SEMIViews. Individual standards can be purchased from the SEMI Web store using the links below.

• SEMI M1: Specifications for Polished Single Crystal Silicon Wafers
• SEMI M49: Guide for Specifying Geometry Measurement Systems for Silicon Wafers for the 130 nm to 22 nm Technology Generations
• SEMI M52: Guide for Specifying Scanning Surface Inspection Systems for Silicon Wafers for the130 nm to 11 nm Technology Generations
• SEMI M74: Specification for 450mm Diameter Mechanical Handling Polished Wafer
• SEMI M76: Specification for Developmental 450mm Diameter Polished Single Crystal Wafer
• SEMI M80: Mechanical Specification for Front-Opening Shipping Box Used to Transport and Ship 450mm Wafers
• SEMI E84: Specification for Enhanced Carrier Handoff Parallel I/O Interface
• SEMI E154, Mechanical Interface for 450mm Load Port
• SEMI E156, Mechanical Specification for 450mm AMHS Stocker to Transport Interface
• SEMI E158, Mechanical Specification for Fab Wafer Carrier Used to Transport and Store 450mm Wafers (450 FOUP) and Kinematic Coupling
• SEMI E159: Mechanical Specification for Multi-Application Carrier (450 MAC) Used to Transport and Ship 450 mm Wafers
• SEMI E162: Mechanical Interface Specification for 450mm Front-Opening Shipping Box Load Port
• SEMI G88: Specification for Tape Frame for 450 mm Wafer
• SEMI G92: Specification for Tape Frame Cassette for 450 mm Wafer
• SEMIAUX023, Overview Guide to SEMI Standards for 450mm Wafers

For more information on the STEP on 450 mm wafer, contact Hirofumi Kanno (SEMI Japan) at hkanno@semi.org.