Flammability test of semiconductor materials

In the semiconductor industry, as wafers become smaller and faster, the manufacturing process required to create them becomes increasingly complex. Even the slightest delay in production can mean a loss of millions of dollars in revenue. One of the main sources of delay in the chip manufacturing process is contamination. No matter how small the contamination, it has the potential to shut down a chip manufacturer for weeks, if not permanently. Therefore, IC processing is all carried out in clean rooms. 

Due to the particularity of its construction and production, cleanrooms not only share the common characteristics of general production plants in terms of fire occurrence and risk but also have their own unique features. The special requirements for the airtightness of cleanrooms imposed by the production processes within them lead to the following main fire hazards in cleanrooms. 

1. Multiple fire hazards and high probability of fire occurrence: In industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and electronics, due to production processes or production materials, there are many fire hazards, and the probability of fire occurrence is relatively high. 

Cleanrooms, due to their unique architectural and production characteristics, not only share the fire occurrence and hazard features of general production plants but also have their own specific fire risks. The special requirements for the airtightness of cleanrooms for their production processes result in the following main fire hazards. 

1. Multiple fire hazards and high probability of fire occurrence

In industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and electronics, it is common to divide functions based on the requirements of production processes or assembly line operations. This makes certain hazardous processes or equipment directly affect the safety of buildings and personnel. Especially when raw materials or intermediate products produced during the process are flammable and explosive, they cannot be prevented through building structure or layout, which greatly increases the fire hazard of the factory buildings. 

Second, large clean areas and difficulties in fire compartmentation

With the rapid development of modern industry, especially the electronics industry, and the continuous update of clean technology, the area of clean zones has been constantly expanding. For instance, a certain chip manufacturing enterprise has a clean zone area of nearly 100,000 square meters based on process requirements. Perforated floor slabs integrate the factory's clean zone with the raw material and equipment area, and the clean zone is also designed in an integrated manner with the supply and return air ducts, reaching a height of over 20 meters. For such super-large clean workshops, the setting of horizontal and vertical fire compartments is fraught with difficulties. When a fire occurs, the smoke and dust generated by the fire can easily spread throughout the entire factory area, causing comprehensive damage. 

III. Complicated Interior Layout and Difficult Personnel Evacuation

As the area of clean zones keeps expanding and the requirements for controlling the concentration of airborne particles become increasingly strict, the number of process isolation measures and dust removal and prevention facilities in clean workshops also keeps increasing. The layout of corridors and passageways within the factory must first meet the requirements of the process, resulting in a complicated interior layout and difficult personnel evacuation. Most clean workshops in the pharmaceutical, electronic, and food industries are labor-intensive, especially packaging and assembly workshops, which are often small in size but have a large number of personnel. In the event of a fire, it is easy to cause mass casualties. 

4. Closed building structure makes smoke exhaust and fire fighting difficult

To ensure the cleanliness requirements of clean rooms and save energy, production areas often have no or few fixed windows, keeping the production space structurally closed. Once a fire occurs, heat is difficult to dissipate and smoke is hard to be exhausted, making personnel evacuation and fire fighting smoke exhaust increasingly difficult. In some clean workshops, the insulation materials release toxic gases during a fire, which are introduced into the closed clean workshop, also causing great difficulties for personnel evacuation and fire fighting. In addition, the partition walls and ceilings of clean rooms are mostly made of metal plates, which have a strong shielding effect on electromagnetic waves and have a particularly significant impact on wireless communication. Once a fire occurs, the wireless communication system used by firefighters is difficult to operate in the clean area, making fire fighting and rescue operations even more challenging. 

V. Rapid Fire Spread and Difficulty in Early Detection

Cleanrooms typically have strict requirements for temperature and humidity, and their air supply, exhaust, and dust removal ducts are rather complex. These ducts are usually placed in the technical mezzanine above the cleanroom. In case of a fire, the flames can spread rapidly along the ducts. Cleanrooms are densely equipped with ducts and extensively use non-combustible insulation materials. Once a fire breaks out, it not only causes rapid fire spread but also generates a large amount of toxic and harmful combustion products, which can easily lead to casualties. The process materials and utility pipelines, as well as cables in cleanrooms, are intricately arranged and often concealed, usually installed in the technical mezzanine or embedded in the partition walls. When faults occur, they are not easily detected in time, and fire hazards are hard to identify. 

Six. Special production processes and difficulties in controlling secondary disasters

Some clean workshops produce biologically active substances. In the event of a fire, it is not only necessary to control and extinguish the fire, but also to prevent the occurrence of secondary disasters. If the measures to control secondary disasters are inappropriate, the consequences of environmental pollution will be far greater than those caused by the fire. 

The Cleanroom Flammability Test Protocol (Class 4910) includes methods for conducting tests. Materials that pass the FM4910 Cleanroom Fire Protection Protocol test can reduce the risk of fire hazards and potential losses, and to a certain extent, ensure the safety of production. 

Testing must be carried out using advanced technology and equipment. ECMG has the most experienced SEMI team in the country, with testing equipment that meets FM4910 requirements and experienced engineering personnel. They assist material manufacturers in completing material flame retardancy tests in accordance with the FM4910 standard. All tests and technical support are completed locally, allowing for immediate response to customer requirements.