Tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) is a basic solvent widely utilized in the semiconductor industry for photoresist development and lithography applications. The reduction of potential contamination on silicon wafers during the manufacturing processes is crucial as trace-metal, particulate and organic contaminants can alter the functionality of semiconductors. At the sub-ppt level, environmental contaminants are difficult to control and can easily contaminate TMAH and other chemicals, if not properly handled.
This work presents the automated analysis of undiluted semiconductor-grade TMAH using PerkinElmer’s NexION® 5000 Multi-Quadrupole ICP-MS working seamlessly with the ESI prepFAST S ultraclean sample introduction system. The automated MSA calibration capabilities of the prepFAST S allowed outstanding calibration linearity to be achieved for all 38 elements. And the NexION 5000 ICP-MS effectively eliminated the spectral interferences in the samples, thanks to its multi-quadrupole technology and a true-quadrupole Universal Cell pressurized with pure reaction gases, resulting in superb background equivalent concentrations (BECs) and limits of detection (LODs) while demonstrating excellent tolerance to harsh chemicals.