Linde's on-Site Blended Fluorine Improves Safety and Lowers Costs at UMC Singapore.

MURRAY HILL, N.J. -- Linde Electronics has installed the electronics industry's first on-site fluorine blending module at UMC Singapore, helping UMC to improve safety and lower operating costs in its fab production line.

Linde Electronics, the global electronic gases business of The Linde Group, entered the on-site fluorine supply market through Linde AG's 2006 acquisition of The BOC Group, plc., creating one of the world's largest electronics and industrial gases and engineering companies. UMC is a world leading semiconductor foundry, with 300mm fabs in Taiwan and Singapore specializing in the contract manufacturing of customer-designed integrated circuits for high performance semiconductor applications.

In UMC's Singapore fab, cylinder fluorine was replaced with two new, Linde Generation-F([R]) on-site fluorine generators, which combine proven technology with intrinsically safe design. The generator and blending module are backed up by dedicated on-site support to provide semiconductor manufacturers with a safe and highly reliable source of pure fluorine for chemical vapor deposition chamber cleaning.

"Operators of thermal CVD furnaces are increasingly turning to Linde on-site generated fluorine as an alternative to compressed cylinder fluorine to reduce costs and improve safety and process control," said Noel Leeson, global head of Linde's electronics division.

"On-site fluorine is delivered at lower pressure than compressed fluorine and eliminates the need to routinely replace and store cylinders. Eliminating cylinder changeouts also reduces the likelihood of moisture entering the system, which can increase particulate levels and cause corrosion," Leeson said.

The Linde fluorine generators provide UMC Singapore's manufacturing line with a fully redundant supply of high purity, 100 percent fluorine on demand. The fluorine is delivered to the process tools through the blending module, which creates an 80-20 nitrogen-fluorine blend.

Linde's blending capability enables a seamless transition at sites where cylinders are already established, with no changes required for the process tools or existing supply pipework.

Linde's on-site generated and blended fluorine is typically of a higher purity, blend accuracy and blend stability compared with cylinder gases. The Linde system supplied to UMC Singapore also includes an on-line Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis module, which provides real-time purity analysis of the flow to process tools, and a sampling point for off-line concentration analysis.

Including those at UMC Singapore, Linde has supplied and operates over 25 Generation-F([R]) systems worldwide to meet the semiconductor and display industries' chamber cleaning needs.

EuroAsia Semiconductor magazine named the Linde Generation-F([R]) system as the winner in the materials improvement category for its 2007 product awards.

Linde offers electronics customers around the world an extensive selection of high purity gases, related products, services and technical solutions for research and development through to large-scale production.

The Linde Group is a world leading industrial gases and engineering group of companies with more than 49,000 employees working in around 70 countries worldwide. Following the acquisition of The BOC Group the company has gases and engineering sales of approximately 12 billion euros. The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards forward-looking products and services.

For more information, please see The Linde Group online at http://www.linde.com.