Pioneering the European electronics industry’s efforts for sustainable manufacturing of semiconductors, Linde Gases, a division of The Linde Group, has installed Europe’s first CE-marked on-site electronics grade fluorine (F2) generator, at STMicroelectronics’ Crolles 300mm wafer fabrication plant, in France.
As part of STMicroelectronics’ initiative to lower the environmental impact of producing semiconductors, high-pressure cylinder F2 has been replaced by two new Linde Generation-F® on-site fluorine generators – providing a low pressure, fully redundant supply of high purity F2 and eliminating the need to transport to and keep cylinders on site.
The Linde fluorine generators and ancillary equipment combine proven technology with intrinsically safe design, to provide STMicroelectronics an on-demand, safe and highly reliable source of pure F2 for Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) chamber cleaning.
One cylinder of hydrogen fluoride (used as the source material for the on-site generator) provides the same amount of F2 to the fab as 100 high pressure F2 cylinders – significantly reducing maintenance workload, while the very low system pressure provides much greater safety for all STMicroelectronics engineers.
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