CIC Photonics articles
Problem Statement
As technologies advance, so does the request for ultra high purity ammonia. Ultra high purity (UHP) ammonia is used in the semiconductor industries, production of flat panel displays, and a number of other applications. Due to this rising interest in UHP ammonia, manufacturers are having to battle ammonia’s most prominent and damaging impurity--moisture. For these applications to work properly it is critical that the moisture levels be as lo
Introduction
Moisture in corrosive gases will accelerate the rate of metal corrosion in gas supply systems which, in turn, can lead to their premature failure. For this reason, it is important to monitor moisture levels in these gases. FTIR is an effective way to monitor for moisture in these corrosive gases. In order to determine low levels of moisture in corrosive gases, it is necessary to use long path gas cells such as the "White Cell" design. The key to using
Problem Statement
Moisture inside a process chamber is a big silent killer during wafer production. When production yield goes down, it is hard to pinpoint the source of the problem. Most of the time wafers need to be sent to labs for analysis, while production is stopped. If the problem is related to a high level of moisture inside the reactor, there are several factors that can cause this problem: an air leak, a process gas out of specs, or a faulty moisture puri
Introduction
When doing process tool or exhaust abatement tool installations, it is desirable to monitor the exhaust gases as a means of controlling or setting up the tool 1, 2. FTIR, with its rapid analysis speed, high sensitivity, and ease of use, offers one means of monitoring such systems at the time of installation and during the working life of the tool. Often, these applications contain small amounts of analyte relative to a very large flow of exhaust gas. F
Problem Statement
As the manufacturers of corrosive resistant gas cells we are often called upon to design a system for the detection of moisture in various gases. Most of our requests are to detect moisture in the low ppb levels. This can be a rather difficult task to accomplish when the surrounding environment has high levels of moisture (humidity). There are several steps that we take to provide our customers with the lowest possible detection limit for moisture
Description
Optical couplers are used to take the light coming from the source of a FTIR and route it through the sampling accessory and into the FTIR detector. This is an essential process in the effective use of the FTIR spectrometer. Therefore, optical couplers play an essential role in the proper use and maintenance of a FTIR system. Recognizing the importance of optical couplers to the overall effectiveness of the FTIR System, CIC Photonics has developed their
About SPGAS
SPGAS is a user-friendly, turnkey FTIR software package designed specifically for the analysis of gaseous constituents. While providing all of the control features of a standard FTIR software package for Bomem spectrometers, SPGAS also provides the ability for 24/7/365 operation of the IRGAS analysis package. SPGAS is designed to save spectral files from each day of operations within it’s own automatically created directory structure for ease of r
Problem Statement
Moisture purifiers are a big aid in keeping moisture levels under control inside a process chamber. They are provided by manufacturers with certain life expectancies, which vary depending on the moisture content of the gas being purified. As a result, it is difficult to determine which gases have a high moisture content and which moisture purifier is becoming saturated.
IRGAS Applicability
The IRGAS Turnkey G
Problem Statement
The race for a system that can detect the lowest possible level of moisture is seemingly everlasting. As the race continues we have begun to explore the options of using an EP-IR spectrometer coupled with DID Photonics Integrated IR Source 4 Runner.
Experimental Equipment
The EP-IR spectrometer is vibration insensitive and runs on the basis of an encoded disk with 128 channels. The spectrograph used in the sp
Problem Statement
What is the precision, accuracy, and reproducibility of an FTIR instrument? A seemingly relatively easy question with a not so relatively easy answer. Unfortunately, there is no straight-forward answer to this question, and the answers that there are can get complicated and confusing. Hopefully this application note will give some insight into signal/noise ratio, standard error, precision, accuracy, and reproducibility and will explain why there is no straight-for