Tousimis Automegasamdri 915B Critical Point Dryer

2024-12-20 to 2025-01-02: Reduced Holiday Operations

Dear Birck Research Community,

The Purdue winter recess begins effective Friday afternoon December 20th and concludes Thursday morning, January 2. The university is officially closed during this time. As we have done in past years, the Birck Nanotechnology Center will remain available for research but will be unstaffed and hazardous gasses will be unavailable. Lab work may otherwise proceed, though any fume hood work must be done with someone else present in the same laboratory or cleanroom bay (the "buddy" system). Click the link above to get more detail about equipment conditions and rules.


Refer to the Material and Process Compatibility page for information on materials compatible with this tool.
Equipment Status: Set as UP, PROBLEM, or DOWN, and report the issue date (MM/DD) and a brief description. Italicized fields will be filled in by BNC Staff in response to issues. See Problem Reporting Guide for more info.

StatusUP
Issue Date and Description


Estimated Fix Date and Comment

Responding Staff

/wiki/spaces/BNCWiki/pages/6235676

 

iLab Name: CPD
iLab Kiosk: BRK Packaging and Assembly Core
FIC:
Dimitrios Peroulis
Owner: Mihailo Bradash

Location:
Cleanroom - P Bay
Maximum Wafer Size: 
6"/150 mm


Overview

General Description

A supercritical dryer to dry a sample immersed in a liquid, without the negative effects of the liquid-gas phase transition (evaporation).

Specifications

  • Samples may be from .25" to 6" wafers
  • Samples should be immersed in IPA before starting.

Technology Overview

 Supercritical drying allows a phase transition from liquid to gas without crossing the liquid-gas phase boundary. On the phase diagram below, it follows the red arrow:

This transition relies on turning the chamber fluid into a supercritical fluid:

For carbon dioxide, this is accomplished at 31.1 C and 1072 PSI. IPA is introduced into the chamber, then replaced with liquid CO2, which is then turned into a supercritical fluid, and then into a gas. This allows the sample to dry without the negative effects of a phase transition.

A close look at supercritical carbon dioxide CO2



Sample Requirements and Preparation

Samples should be free of any contaminants or metals that will flake off upon introduction to the chamber. Samples should be free of organics (i.e. Photoresist) and immersed in clean IPA before loading into the chamber.


Standard Operating Procedure


Questions & Troubleshooting

May I use methanol instead of IPA?
Methanol is an allowed substitute for IPA, but IPA is preferred. The lack of a strong difference between the two intermediaries and the fact that methanol is considered toxic means that IPA is the preferred choice.