Xzero AB
Xzero is a Swedish company that has spent 20 years in R&D for a new technology for process water in the micro- and nanoelectronics industries.The basic idea is to recycle the water from waste water into Ultrapure Water. The most recent challenge has been to remove nanoparticles in order to make sure these are not spread in the environment and not enter the Ultrapure Water used in cleaning of the nanoelectronics. Third party tests done by The Royal Institute of Technology and Swedish Environmental Research Institute (Sweden), Clarkson University (US), Manta Inc (US) and Anton Paar (Austria) have confirmed that Xzero technology is more efficient than existing technologies in removing nanoparticles from water.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Water and Wastewater
- Market Focus:
- Internationally (various countries)
- Employees:
- 1-10
- Turnover:
- less than 1,000,000 €
Yield Rates
The quality of Ultra-pure water is an important factor for yield rate and profitability in nanoelectronics manufacturing
Lastrinse
XZERO has developed proprietary technology for the manufacture and recycle of UPW that removes all contaminants efficiently, even the smallest (sub-20 nano) nanoparticles.
As a general guideline 30 – 40 litres of UPW are used to wash every component (chip). One factory may use up to 10 million litres of UPW per day. The use in the nanoelectronics (semiconductor) industry worldwide is several billion litres per day. The total number of semiconductor manufacturing companies worldwide are a few hundred. Each one may have several factories at different locations.
LastRinse offers the following advantages
- Lower cost
- Less maintenance
- Consistent purity
- Zero discharge
Nanoelectronics Components
The manufacture of nanoelectronics components.
When the process is completed, all the chips on a wafer are individually tested again. Those that pass the rigorous electrical tests are then cut from the wafer with high-speed, water-cooled, diamond cutting saws and mounted in metal or plastic packages, called modules. These modules are then tested again.
The primary building blocks on the wafer are the transistors, i.e. tiny switches that by being off or on signal 0 or 1 – the basis of all digital systems. The next level building block is the integrated circuit (IC). An IC is composed of several components of various types – transistors, diodes, resistors, and capacitors. These are wired into a specific circuit having a specific function. An IC can consist of as few as two components up to hundreds of billions of components. Soon the technology for making ICs will probably be able to put hundreds of trillions of components in one IC. As the components get smaller, the demand on the purity of the rinsing water increases.
Competition
To obtain purest water possible, the nanoelectronics industry adopts most of the major established water purification technologies in sequential steps where one step removes a set of particular contaminants but may also introduces other contaminants which have to be removed by a subsequent step. 15-20 purification steps or more in sequence will generally be required.
LastRinse only distinguishes between two types of contamination. Volatile and non-volatile. LastRinse first removes volatiles from the feed water by degassing. Pure water is then extracted from the remaining feed in molecular form. The feed is turned into a concentrated brine. A part of the brine is continuously tapped and concentrated to solid waste by evaporation.
History
Xzero has developed a new technology for the manufacture of ultra-pure water.
Our equipment was selected for a test of recovery systems for semiconductor rinse water in an evaluation program sponsored by the US joint semiconductor research effort (Sematech) with finance from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Defence. The evaluation was carried out by Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, US (www.sandia.gov). The conclusion was that the Xzero equipment in only two steps produced as pure water as was produced by conventional systems that use around twenty cleaning steps.
Since the tests were made at Sandia, Xzero has been working on long-time testing of the equipment, optimizing production methods and improving system design. Efforts have been made to increase the efficiency of the water and energy consumption, to develop auxiliary equipment and to develop still better membranes and new materials and manufacturing methods.
In 2018, a program to industrialize and market launch the first commercial product – LastRinse – began.
Xzero Impact
Xzero has developed new technology for water treatment in nanoelectronics industry.
Xzero develops a new technology for water treatment in the nanoelectronics industry. The work is conducted in co-operation with the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, and the EU nanoelectronics research centre, imec, in Leuven.
Business case
The new technology is proven to remove sub-20 nanoparticles from Ultrapure Water better than state-of-the-art technology. As the line-width in integrated circuits gets smaller, these small nanoparticles will increase the number of discarded products in the manufacture of integrated circuits. Xzero technology will therefore improve yield rates in the nanoelectronics factories of the future.
Impact for the customer
A future nanoelectronics manufacturing factory is assumed to have annual revenues of B$ 46. Each percentage of decrease in discarded products will have an annual value of approximately M$ 460. The installed cost for Xzero equipment in future nanoelectronics factory is expected to be up to M$ 60. The investment will be extremely profitable for the customer.
Impact for Xzero
A water plant for a normal nanoelectronics factory will produce several million liters of water per day. Gross-profit for one such system can be calculated as M$ 30. Of this M$ 15 will be gross profit for Xzero’s part of the plant.
Impact for Europe
Xzero will contribute to resuscitate the once world leading European manufacture of integrated circuits.
Marketing
Xzero has a co-operation agreement with imec and NDAs with two of the largest international nanoelectronics manufacturers. These agreements will open the avenues for a successful market launch.
Present status
Xzero has developed and tested several models and pilots and a demonstration plant. Since 2018 work has begun to industrialize and commercialize the technology.