SEMI EHS and Facilities standards

Since 1973 the semiconductor industry has been developing its own standards and guidelines to provide the device manufacturers and OEMs with the information that they need to develop, specify and operate their products. The standards are developed by members of the International Standards Program, run by SEMI, which is an international industry association serving companies within the semiconductor, flat panel display, micro-electro-mechanical systems and related equipment industries and materials markets. Although administered by SEMI, more than 1,955 volunteers run the Standards Program worldwide and they participate in meetings held several times a year across Europe, North America, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Since its inception over 30 years ago, 670 standards have been developed. And of these, 20 standards are associated with EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) and 78 standards with Facilities.

Standards meet technical needs In this article we will focus on the work of EHS and Facilities committees, which until relatively recently functioned as one committee and was responsible for assisting in the development of the most sold SEMI Standard, SEMI S2 – EHS guideline for Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment. The charter of EHS committee is to identify and develop international standards fulfilling the technical needs of the semiconductor and related industries. The committee focuses among others on standards that promote safe and environmentally responsible design, selection, facilitation, operation, maintenance, service, decommissioning, and disposition of equipment and materials. In addition to the wide ranging SEMI S2 safety guideline, SEMI S series documents cover safety advice and practice on topics including assessment of fire risk; heated chemical baths; separation and segregation of gas cylinders in equipment; the amounts of hazardous chemicals in the tool; design verification for exhaust and ventilation systems; general ergonomic guidelines; verification tests of electrical design; equipment decontamination; aspects of selection of a gas detection system; guidelines for design and procedures for disposal of equipment; design for the use of UTV (Unmanned Transport Vehicle); and best practice of implementation of Lock Out Tag Out. SEMI also publishes "Auxiliary Documents". These are not subject to the full consensus balloting process for SEMI standards but nevertheless contain useful information about specific subjects. An example of this was the one developed by members of the European EHS Committee covering the ATEX Directives and the work of the Task Force on Decommissioning, which reported last summer after extensive industry consultation. While the North American and Japanese Facilities committees develop standards on equipment installation, power, water, exhaust, distribution, and support systems as well as installation, integration, training, maintenance, consulting, and support, the European Facilities committee focuses more on facility solutions including facility services and automation systems to optimise the consumption of energy and process-media such as water, chemicals, and gases during wafer fabrication. As a result, the aim of the European Facilities Committee is to develop technical standards that firstly enable the industry to lower operating costs, to run the process at optimal performance and to protect the environment, and secondly to reduce the lead time for a wafer fab from the planning stage to being ready for equipment installation.

Optimisation in the fab The committee is devoted to optimising facility management and control in the fab. Optimisation of operating costs while maintaining the environmental control of the fab is driving new technologies in facility management and control. The operation of the involved systems changed from pure locally attended facility package units (FPU) to a combination of locally and remotely run FPUs. Driving factors include the request for transparent and optimised plant, production and cost structures with a total cost of ownership. The Facilities committee has recognised these requirements and is currently developing initial standards to cover these emerging requirements. The high investment requirements associated with the construction of a semiconductor factory mean that it is necessary to achieve as early a return on investment as possible. On the one hand, this means keeping the total costs as low as possible, and on the other minimising the implementation times. This is no longer possible without the use of standards and a uniform system platform for the factory building automation.

Addressing facilities In contrast to semiconductor production, there is lack of standardisation in the facilities area concerning data processing, automation and control. This results in higher efforts in design and construction as well as during operation. Communications standards are necessary but missing in the facilities area. "The IT infrastructure is part of the building and should be fully integrated in the construction process!" states Hannspeter Pachel, Siemens. Telephone system, transportation system, video/TV, office, FFUs, FMCS, equipment and MES – all these need a communication infrastructure. Providing the planning of this structure is co-ordinated with the planning of the building, synergies like common cable trays, common communication cables (with separate fibres or commonly used server rooms) could be achieved, leading to even more reductions in the total cost of ownership. In accordance with the set focus to "enable the industry to lower the operating costs, to run the process at optimal performance, to protect the environment, and to reduce the lead time from planning to ready for equipment", the European Facilities committee initiated the MoFaS task force (Models for Data Processing in Facility Systems). The task force will provide a set of standards that will reduce integration and coordination efforts during design and construction of a Facility Monitoring and Control System (FMCS) by unification of the data structures and interfaces of the FPUs (water treatment, gases, chemicals, HPM, etc. ) and the FMCS. This will also lead to a reduction of lead-time and operating costs.

Benefits of membership Members of the Facilities and EHS committees come from all sectors of the industry, including end users who have an interest in how new standards may affect the cost and operation of their fabs, equipment design and product safety engineers wrestling with the competing needs of customers, regulators and product liability concerns, and independent consultants and third party evaluators who assist both sides in implementing the various standards that affect the industry. These include SEMI's own guidelines such as S2 and European Union CE Marking Directives such as Machinery, Low Voltage and ATEX, as well as national, regional and risk management standards such as NFPA 318, FM7-7. Membership to the SEMI Standards Programme is free and involvement allows participants to ensure that the interests of their company or particular market sector are adequately represented. The committee co-chairs are keen to ensure that the European equipment manufacturers and device manufacturers use this opportunity to contribute their experience and expertise to the development of standards that will continue to impact the industry globally. That experience is vital to ensure that standards development truly reflects the different ways in which we work within the global semiconductor industry, which is clearly demonstrated in the field of health and safety. In Europe, most directives and health and safety legislation is implemented on the basis of the risk of injury, whereas in many other parts of the world including Japan and North America, safety is more a matter of compliance with codes and standards. This simple difference can result in significant differences in the way that standards and guidelines are drafted and implemented, hence the reason why involvement at a European level is so important.

Broadening knowledge Involvement does not require attendance at meetings, although that is encouraged. Many Standards Programme members simply review documents at the various stages of drafting and vote on the ballots electronically. Others participate in document development through regular telephone conferences and email. Whatever the level of participation, most members would agree that it is an excellent way of broadening your knowledge of the industry, its processes and the issues that affect its operation. If you would like to become more informed or involved, we recommend that you attend one of the next international set of SEMI Standards meetings. These are being held in conjunction with SEMICON Europa this month, SEMICON West in July and SEMICON Japan in December. More information can be found on www.semi.org/standards