More than 400 chemical products are used in semiconductor plants. There are over 200 liquids and 25 solids. Approximately 170 pure chemical ingredients are used. A third of products contain one of the following ingredients; propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA), cyclohexanone and propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PGME). Most chemicals known to be used are harmful and have hazard information but the chemicals being kept trade secret makes obtaining the chemical content, chemical abstract service (CAS) number, ingredients, and hazards difficult. The industry has a requirement to test the raw materials used in manufacturing and has widely adopted the use of fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis for this purpose.
This application note describes how the PerkinElmer Spectrum™ Two+ FT-IR spectrometer can be deployed using a workflow approach suitable for a regulated environment to overcome a range of different challenges in raw material identification while also meeting the GLP requirements.