A highly effective moisture removal technique for front opening unified pods (FOUPs) can significantly improve the production yield of semiconductor manufacturing industries by minimizing the number of faulty dies rejected due to humidity related defects in silicon wafers. In this study, FOUP purging using clean dry air (CDA) was applied using conventional and diffuser purge method. An innovative laminar air curtain was also used to increase the performance of the FOUP purging techniques. These moisture removal techniques were applied in an open FOUP connected to a mini-environment in which a local exhaust ventilation (LEV) was installed. A novel smoke flow visualization technique and particle image velocimetry (PIV) were employed to visualize the flow pattern inside the FOUP and to generate a velocity vector field from the flow field. In addition, digital humidity sensors were installed inside the FOUP to evaluate the performance of the techniques. The flow analysis and humidity data show that the air curtain can significantly improve the performance of the purge methods. The observations demonstrate that the application of the air curtain, in combination with diffuser purge, can significantly improve the FOUP cleanliness. The LEV system was not found to have influence on the flow field inside the FOUP.

中文翻译：

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具有局部排气通风系统的不同前开式统一吊舱 (FOUP) 除湿技术的性能

一种用于前开式统一封装 (FOUP) 的高效除湿技术可以通过最大限度地减少因硅晶片中与湿度相关的缺陷而被剔除的有缺陷芯片的数量，从而显着提高半导体制造行业的生产良率。在这项研究中，使用清洁干燥空气 (CDA) 的 FOUP 吹扫采用传统和扩散器吹扫方法。还使用了创新的层流空气幕来提高 FOUP 吹扫技术的性能。这些除湿技术应用于与安装了局部排气通风 (LEV) 的微型环境相连的开放式 FOUP。采用一种新颖的烟雾流可视化技术和粒子图像测速 (PIV) 来可视化 FOUP 内部的流动模式，并从流场生成速度矢量场。此外，数字湿度传感器安装在 FOUP 内以评估技术的性能。流量分析和湿度数据表明，空气幕可以显着提高吹扫方法的性能。观察结果表明，空气幕的应用与扩散器吹扫相结合，可以显着提高 FOUP 清洁度。未发现 LEV 系统对 FOUP 内的流场有影响。