SMIF (Standard Mechanical Interface) is an isolation technology developed in the 1980s by a group known as the "micronauts" at Hewlett-Packard in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

. The system is used in

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...

wafer A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light and dry biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They ...

fabrication and

cleanroom A cleanroom or clean room is an engineered space, which maintains a very low concentration of airborne particulates. It is well isolated, well-controlled from contamination, and actively cleansed. Such rooms are commonly needed for scientif ...

environments. It is a

SEMI SEMI is an industry association comprising companies involved in the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. They provide equipment, materials and services for the manufacture of semiconductors, photovoltaic panels, LED and flat pan ...

standard.

Development

The core development team was led by Ulrich Kaempf as engineering manager, under the direction of Mihir Parikh. The core team that developed the technology was driven by Barclay Tullis, who held most of the patents, with Dave Thrasher, who later joined the Silicon Valley Group, and Thomas Atchison, a member of the technical staff under direction of Barclay Tullis. Mihir later provided the technology to SEMI, and then licensed a copy for himself, and spun out Asyst Technologies to provide the technology commercially. Asyst technology subsequent acquire by Brooks Automation in their Versaport. The interface is the same after being acquired

Use

The purpose of SMIF pods is to isolate wafers from contamination by providing a miniature environment with controlled airflow, pressure and particle count. SMIF pods can be accessed by automated mechanical interfaces on production equipment. The wafers therefore remain in a carefully controlled environment whether in the SMIF pod or in a tool, without being exposed to the surrounding airflow. Each SMIF pod contains a wafer cassette in which the wafers are stored horizontally. The bottom surface of the pod is the opening door, and when a SMIF pod is placed on a load port, the bottom door and cassette are lowered into the tool so that the wafers can be removed. Both wafers and reticles can be handled by SMIF pods in a semiconductor fabrication environment. Used in lithographic tools, reticles or

photomask A photomask is an opaque plate with holes or transparencies that allow light to shine through in a defined pattern. They are commonly used in photolithography and the production of integrated circuits (ICs or "chips") in particular. Masks are used ...

s contain the image that is exposed on a coated wafer in one processing step of a complete integrated semiconductor manufacturing cycle. Because reticles are linked so directly with wafer processing, they also require steps to protect them from contamination or from being the source of contamination in the litho tool. SMIF is typically used for wafers no larger than 200mm, the equivalent for 300mm wafers being the

FOUP FOUP is an acronym for Front Opening Unified Pod or Front Opening Universal Pod. It is a specialised plastic enclosure designed to hold silicon wafers A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light and dry biscuit, often used to deco ...

(Front Opening Unified Pod). The greater flexibility of 300mm wafers means that it is not feasible to use SMIF technology and designs for 300mm, hence the reason for the emergence of FOUPs. Several FOUP SEMI standards, including SEMI E47.1-1106, are related to both 300 and 450 mm wafers.

References

External links

* Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International
SEMI
the semiconductor industry trade association * Entegri
wafer and reticle handling
systems
Fortrend
Engineering {{DEFAULTSORT:Smif Interface Semiconductor fabrication equipment Semiconductor device fabrication

Development

Use

See also

References

External links