The history of thin film semiconductor manufacturing has been one of constant process improvement. This constant process improvement was necessary in order to establish cost effective high yielding production lines as they struggled to keep pace with Moore’s law. All of this has been made possible through the integration of automated metrology systems with statistical process control.
Spindle screw pumps feature a simple construction that offers high reliability, performance and efficiency for liquid cooling systems. Comprised of a single rotor element that is powered, while two others are idle, spindle screw pumps move fluid axially without turbulence, eliminating foaming that would otherwise occur in viscous fluids. The idle rotors are rotated by liquid pressure, essentially generating a fluid bearing, or hydrodynamic film, that provides radial support similar to journal bearings.
Cooling and temperature control systems are used throughout semiconductor fabrication facilities. In fabrication facilities both large and small, hundreds to thousands of cooling systems are installed and operate continuously. The processes employed are usually setup as copy-exact, which means the process systems are developed and transferred from the OEM of the process tool. These critical production tools used in semiconductor fabrication facilities are required to be reliable and easy to service to deliver minimum downtime.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique used in molecular diagnostics to amplify sequencing of DNA. Also referred to as molecular photocopying, the DNA produced by PCR is vital to many laboratory and clinical procedures. PCR testing has been instrumental in the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, better known as COVID-19. Not only do PCR tests detect the presence of a virus during testing but it will also detect fragments of a virus even after the patient is no longer infected.
