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9-401: FOUPs began to appear along with the first 300mm wafer processing tools in the mid 1990s. The size of the wafers and their comparative lack of rigidity meant that SMIF pods were not a viable form factor. FOUP standards were developed by SEMI and SEMI members to ensure that FOUPs and all equipment that interacts with FOUPs work together seamlessly. Transitioning from a SMIF pod to a FOUP design,

18-477: 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

27-500: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Smif interface SMIF ( Standard Mechanical Interface ) is a wafer carrier used in semiconductor wafer fabrication and cleanroom environments. The isolation technology was developed in the 1980s by a group known as the "micronauts" at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto . It is a SEMI standard. The purpose of SMIF pods is to isolate wafers from contamination by providing

36-473: The customer's wish. FOUPs have begun to have the capability to have a purge gas applied by process, measurement and storage tools in an effort to increase device yield . FOUPs can be purged inside a FOUP stocker or at the equipment accessing the FOUP. FOSB is an acronym for Front Opening Shipping Box. FOSBs are used for transporting wafers between manufacturing facilities. This industry -related article

45-587: 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 photomasks 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

54-463: The removable cassette used to hold wafers was replaced by fixed wafer columns. The door was relocated from a bottom orientation to a front orientation, where automated handling equipment can access the wafers. Pitch for a 300 mm FOUP is 10 mm, while 13 slot FOUPs can have a pitch up to 20 mm. The weight of a fully loaded 25 wafer FOUP is between 7 and 9 kilograms which means that automated material handling systems are essential for all but

63-521: The smallest of fabrication plants. To allow this, each FOUP has coupling plates and interface holes to allow the FOUP to be positioned on a load port, and to be picked up and transferred by the AMHS ( Automated Material Handling System ) to other process tools or to storage locations such as a stocker or undertrack storage. FOUPs may use RF tags that allow them to be identified by RF readers on tools or AMHS. FOUPs are available in several colors, depending on

72-533: The source of contamination in the litho tool. SMIF is typically used for wafers no larger than 200mm. The equivalent for 300mm wafers is the FOUP ( F ront O pening U nified P od). 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. The core development team

81-475: 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

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