Semiconductor Industry
Leveraging its leading technological capabilities, Sollant delivers stable and reliable operational performance, empowering the semiconductor industry to achieve a smooth, contamination-free working environment.
Clean Dry Air
The Importance of Clean Dry Air (CDA)
in the Semiconductor Industry
Semiconductor manufacturing is currently the most sophisticated high-tech industry, with process nodes advancing to the nanometer or even atomic scale. In an ultra-cleanroom environment, even minute contaminants—such as particles, moisture, oil mist, or molecular contaminants—can cause wafer defects, circuit shorts, thin-film failures, or oxidative corrosion. These issues can ultimately lead to a drastic drop in yield or even the scrapping of entire product batches. Clean Dry Air (CDA) serves as a core utility medium that ensures purity and reliability across the entire production chain.
The Core Role of CDA
CDA is compressed air that has undergone compression, deep drying, and multi-stage precision filtration; it must strictly comply with the ISO 8573-1 Class 0 standard.
Key Application Scenarios:
- Cleanroom Environmental Control: Maintaining positive pressure and constant temperature and humidity, blocking the intrusion of external contaminants, and creating a protective airflow barrier.
- Core Wafer Manufacturing Processes: Used in photolithography, etching, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and other processes for chamber pressure stabilization, surface purging, residue removal, and drying.
- Equipment Actuation and Automation: Powering pneumatic tools, precision handling, packaging and testing, wire bonding, dispensing, and other non-contact operations to prevent secondary contamination.
- Other Critical Stages: Chip cooling, material embedding, vacuum system support, instrument air supply, and wastewater treatment.
Why Is It So Important?
- Zero Tolerance for Contamination: Semiconductor fabs have air quality requirements far stricter than those of other industries. A single drop of oil mist or a trace amount of moisture can ruin a batch of wafers worth tens of thousands of dollars.
- Extremely High Continuity Requirements: Production lines operate 24/7 without interruption; any failure or quality fluctuation in the CDA system can cause downtime, resulting in massive economic losses (losses can reach the million-dollar range per hour).
- Direct Impact on Yield and Cost: High-quality CDA significantly reduces defect rates, equipment corrosion, and maintenance costs, making it crucial for enhancing overall manufacturing competitiveness and controlling operational expenses.
Industry Applications
Compressed Air Across the
Entire Semiconductor Manufacturing Chain
From front-end wafer fabrication to back-end packaging and testing, compressed air plays a critical role in every stage of semiconductor production.
01 / WAFER FAB
Process Air Supply for Wafer Fabrication
Supplies ISO 8573-1 Class 0 oil-free, clean compressed air to all process equipment within the fab; it is a core utility for the cleanroom’s power and pneumatic systems.
02 / LITHOGRAPHY
Lithography / Lithography Tool Purging
Lithography is the critical process of imprinting specific patterns onto wafers. Clean, dry air is used to purge and purify lithography lenses and stages, preventing molecular-level contaminants from interfering with exposure precision.
03 / CLEAN ROOM
Cleanroom Cooling and Environmental Control
The cleanroom is the core area of
04 / WAFER HANDLING
Pneumatic Systems for Wafer Transfer
FOUP openers, wafer transfer robots, and pneumatic actuators all require clean, dry instrument air. Moisture and particulates can cause valve sticking, robotic positioning errors, and wafer damage.
05 / IC PACKAGING
Chip Packaging and Bonding
Wire bonders, die bonders, and flip-chip equipment all require oil-free, dry air for operation. Oil contamination can affect bonding interfaces, leading to reduced bond strength and reliability failures.
06 / PNEUMATIC TOOLS
Pneumatic Instruments and Tools
Numerous processes—including sorting, packaging, testing, handling, assembly, and etching—rely on pneumatic instruments or tools. Oil-free compressed air ensures products remain uncontaminated during production.
07 / PCB ASSEMBLY
PCB Assembly Lines
Pick-and-place machines, solder paste dispensers, and AOI inspection equipment all require clean instrument air. Moisture and oil contamination can lead to solder joint defects, flux contamination, and reliability issues.
08 / SOLDERING
Nitrogen-Assisted Soldering
Soldering under a high-purity nitrogen atmosphere significantly improves solder joint quality and reduces oxidation, while also offering notable environmental benefits. Sollant nitrogen generators provide on-site, high-purity nitrogen generation solutions.
09 / FINAL TEST
Burn-in and Final Testing
Burn-in chambers and electrical testing systems require low-dew-point instrument air. This prevents moisture condensation—which could damage the devices under test and testing fixtures—during high-temperature testing, thereby ensuring the accuracy of test data.
Solutions
Sollant’s Solutions for Your Specific Applications
As a professional provider of compressed air system solutions, Sollant is dedicated to delivering comprehensive compressed air solutions—characterized by exceptional purity and high reliability—to users within the semiconductor industry. Fully cognizant of the semiconductor manufacturing sector’s extremely stringent requirements regarding air quality, we center our entire process—from equipment selection and system design to installation and commissioning—around the Class 0 oil-free standard. In doing so, we engineer safe, stable, and highly efficient systems that supply clean, dry air.
Whether you are constructing a new wafer fab, expanding a cleanroom, or upgrading an existing compressed air system, Sollant can tailor the ideal compressed air solution to your specific needs—helping your semiconductor production achieve higher yields, lower costs, and more stable operations.
Choose Sollant—partnering with you to safeguard every step of your nanoscale precision manufacturing.
Related Products
Sollant Core Advantages
Why Choose Sollant as
Your Semiconductor Gas Supply Partner?
Zero Contamination at the Source · Class 0 Oil-Free Certification
Oil-free compression technology eliminates contamination risks at the source—there is no need to worry about oil separator failure or contamination incidents during filter replacement. Class 0 certification is verified at the compressor outlet, rather than being merely assumed to be achieved through downstream filtration.
Dew Point as Low as ≤-40°C · Completely Eliminates Moisture Risks
Equipped with an adsorption dryer system, the pressure dew point can reach ≤-40°C. This completely eliminates risks such as corrosion, valve failure, or process contamination caused by moisture in semiconductor process gas and instrument air lines, ensuring a continuous and stable supply of dry air for the production environment.
VSD Energy Efficiency · Reduces Electricity Costs by 20–35%
Semiconductor facilities are among the most energy-intensive manufacturing sites, with compressed air typically accounting for 15–25% of total electricity consumption. Sollant’s variable speed drive (VSD) air compressors dynamically adjust output based on actual air demand, achieving energy savings of up to 35% in 24/7 production environments.
22 Years of Manufacturing Experience · Global Service Network
With over 22 years of industry experience and ISO 9001 certification, Sollant boasts an annual production capacity exceeding 20,000 units. We maintain a dedicated team of engineers providing 24/7 support and a one-year warranty, ensuring your production line receives timely assistance whenever it is needed.
What the Customer Says
★★★★★
“From design planning to installation and commissioning, the service team demonstrated professionalism and efficiency. The compressor has been in operation for over two years with zero malfunctions, providing a robust guarantee for the stability of our cleanroom environment.”
Catherine，Production Manager
★★★★★
“Semiconductor manufacturing demands extremely high levels of air purity; the solution provided by Sollant fully meets our requirement for a dew point of -70°C. It delivers significant energy savings and has helped us achieve our green manufacturing objectives.”
Orion, R&D Specialist
★★★★★
“Previously, the noise level at our air compressor station was excessive; however, after switching to Sollant air compressors, the improvement was dramatic—noise levels dropped by over 20 decibels, and the overall footprint of the equipment was reduced by 40%.”
Rowan, Product Lead
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the semiconductor industry impose such stringent requirements on compressed air?
Semiconductor manufacturing involves nanoscale precision processes; even the slightest particles, moisture, oil mist, or contaminants on the wafer surface can lead to circuit defects, oxidation, corrosion, or thin-film failure, directly resulting in reduced yields or even the scrapping of entire batches of products. Therefore, it is essential to use Clean Dry Air (CDA) that meets the ISO 8573-1 Class 0 standard, ensuring zero oil content, an ultra-low dew point, and extremely high purity.
What problems does moisture in the air cause?
- Causes chip scrapping: Moisture reacts with photoresist, leading to blurred patterns; it combines with acidic gases to form corrosive acid mists that attack the precision circuitry on the wafer surface, directly resulting in scrapped chips.
- Damages precision equipment: Rusting pipes generate particles that scratch the expensive optical lenses of lithography machines; it also clogs precision pneumatic valve spools, impairing control accuracy.
- Disrupts the cleanroom environment: It upsets the temperature and humidity balance of the cleanroom and affects photoresist performance, leading to parameter deviations across entire batches of products.
Why does the semiconductor industry demand high stability in gas supply?
- Massive economic losses: A production halt at a 12-inch wafer fab can result in losses of millions of yuan per hour, compounded by the lengthy recalibration times required to restart equipment.
- Direct impact on yield: Pressure fluctuations can lead to uneven etching or deposition, causing critical dimension (CD) deviations across a batch of wafers and reducing yield. Sudden shutdowns result in the immediate scrapping of wafers currently being processed.
- Damage to critical equipment: Gas supply interruptions can cause process by-products to accumulate, leading to vacuum pump seizure or failure within minutes; a sudden drop in pipeline pressure can also trigger backflow, contaminating the entire piping system.
Implement a system solution featuring “parallel unit configuration, variable frequency regulation, and intelligent integrated control” to ensure uninterrupted 24/7 gas supply and maintain pressure fluctuations within ±0.05 MPa.
How do you select a compressed air system suitable for the semiconductor industry?
Selecting a compressed air system for the semiconductor industry requires a systematic approach centered on four key standards: Class 0 oil-free operation, ultra-dryness, ultra-cleanliness, and stability.
- Define core quality standards: Strictly adhere to the ISO 8573-1:2010 standard, requiring Class 0 oil content (completely oil-free), a pressure dew point of ≤-40°C (or ≤-70°C for certain processes), and a particle size of ≤0.1 μm. These requirements form the foundation of all selection decisions.
- Select “true” oil-free compressors: Prioritize oil-free screw or centrifugal compressors certified to ISO 8573-1 Class 0 to eliminate oil contamination at the source. Be wary of systems that achieve “technical oil-free” status solely through downstream filtration; the risks associated with these are far higher than those of genuine oil-free compressors.
- Configure deep-drying and precision filtration systems: The system must incorporate adsorption dryers (such as twin-tower or heat-of-compression regenerative types) and multi-stage precision filters (including PTFE membrane filters) working in tandem to achieve ultra-low dew points and remove particles as small as 0.01 μm.
- Ensure supply stability and reliability: Adopt a system configuration featuring parallel operation of multiple units, variable frequency drive (VFD) regulation, and intelligent integrated control. This approach limits pressure fluctuations to within ±0.01 MPa, guarantees a continuous 24/7 air supply, and incorporates redundancy for critical equipment.
What do semiconductor factories value most regarding air quality?
They place the highest priority on “absolute purity” and “absolute stability.” This is specifically reflected in the following three “zero-tolerance” metrics:
| Key Indicators | Core Requirements | Consequences of Non-compliance |
| Oil Contamination (Zero Tolerance) | Meets ISO 8573-1 Class 0 standards, with a total oil content of ≤0.01 mg/m³. | Oil molecules adsorbing onto wafer surfaces cause circuit short circuits and equipment corrosion, directly reducing yield or even leading to product scrapping. |
| Moisture (Ultra-low dew point) | The pressure dew point must remain stable at -40°C, with critical processes requiring levels below -70°C. | Condensation on inner pipe walls corrodes equipment, impairs photoresist performance, and causes chip defects. |
| Particulates (Ultra-clean) | Particle size ≤0.1 μm; the number of particles per cubic meter is strictly controlled (e.g., ISO 8573-2 Class 1). | Tiny particles adhering to the wafer surface cause short circuits or open circuits. |
Therefore, semiconductor plants require a CDA (Clean Dry Air) system that ensures absolute cleanliness, extreme dryness, and stable pressure; fluctuations in any of these parameters could result in the scrapping of entire product batches and massive economic losses.
Request a Quick Quote Now
Order or No Order? We're here for you 24/7
