[labnetwork] An R&D FOUP

[Tony Whipple]

Hello Chris;

Before the FOUP there was the SMIF system for six inch wafers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMIF_(interface)
I have not seen either of these with a vacuum option before.

Regards, Tony W.


On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 3:05 PM Christopher Raum <crraum at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I work between two fabs at UC Berkeley and part of my process flow
> involves shuttling wafers between those two fabs to their respective tools.
>
> Currently I use a wafer box and double bag to ensure the wafers aren't
> contaminated by the environment outside the two fab labs. This is generally
> standard practice for transporting wafers outside a cleanroom.
>
> But there are more complicated concerns. For example one fab lab has a
> wetbench used to remove native oxide from wafers, and when the next tool in
> the flow is in the same fab, I can minimize the regrowth of native oxide -
> but when I need to transfer between fabs regrowth can become an issue.
>
> In industry they use a FOUP (Front Opening Unified Pod) to move wafers
> around while controlling the environment the wafers sees. The pods can be
> purged with nitrogen (and perhaps placed under vacuum?) and I think they
> can also be light tight to allow PR coated wafers to be transported in
> unfiltered light.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOUP
>
> Since it's the industry that uses FOUPs, all the systems are for 12" and
> above wafers. I know I could never be so lucky, but I'll ask anyway - does
> anyone know of any FOUP systems that are fitted for six inch wafers?
>
> Outside that possibility, my ask for the community is: Is there an
> interest in developing such a system? Some sort of crowdsourcing? There are
> many members of industry in this mailing list and I'm sure there would be
> quite a few academic and research customers if someone wanted to develop
> and fabricate such a wafer transportation system.
>
> I hope this post stimulates some interesting discussion.
>
> -Chris
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