Cleaning is not the final step of the process. In many production sites, cleaning is often seen as a step that simply wipes things down once at the end, but actual yield data points in the opposite direction. In semiconductor manufacturing, a single contaminant particle only a few micrometers in size left on the surface can disrupt the entire downstream process, and this fact makes the cleaning process not merely a matter of maintaining cleanliness, but the starting point of a quality strategy.
Why the Cleaning Process Determines Yield
The cleaning process accounts for a much larger share of semiconductor manufacturing than many expect. According to MDPI Nanomaterials, the cleaning process takes up about 30% of total production time, and related costs exceed 20% of the overall budget. This does not simply mean it is a time-consuming process. It means cleaning is deeply connected to the overall process flow and quality.
Surface contaminant particles cannot be identified with the naked eye, but they appear as defects in later adhesion, curing, and packaging stages. For this reason, how particles are removed during the cleaning stage effectively determines the final yield.
This is also why microbubbles, or ultrafine bubbles, are attracting attention. When microbubbles collapse, the shock waves and localized high-temperature and high-pressure effects physically separate contaminant particles adhered to the surface. When water jets, or high-pressure water streams, and air knives, or high-speed air flows, are combined in stages, particle removal efficiency increases significantly compared to a single method. By integrating the oven drying process as well, secondary contamination paths caused by residual moisture after cleaning can also be blocked.
In this way, the industry is increasingly recognizing that cleaning is not an act of wiping, but a matter of process design that blocks contamination paths step by step.
The Meaning of Curing Methods in the Lamination Process
In the lamination, or film attachment, process as well, the key quality variable is shifting from how the film is attached to how accurately and how stably it is cured. In the UV curing step that follows tape mounting, or the attachment of tape for fixing semiconductor chips, the choice of light source is not simply a matter of equipment specifications.
Conventional mercury lamp systems require about 15 minutes of warm-up and cool-down cycles before lighting, and they continuously consume power regardless of whether irradiation is being performed. In contrast, UV LED systems can be turned on immediately and use energy only during operation. Energy consumption is reduced by more than 80% compared to mercury lamps, and service life reaches up to 20,000~30,000 hours compared to about 1,000 hours for mercury lamps. A longer replacement cycle reduces the frequency of line stoppages and also lowers maintenance costs.
The Huvics laminator system integrates everything from the expander, or film expansion device, to the tape mounter and UV curing into a single flow, reducing transfer errors and unnecessary waiting time between process stages. Simplifying the process also means blocking, one by one, the paths where defects can occur. Ultimately, how the curing method and integrated process design are selected in the lamination process becomes the basis for determining the operating rate and yield of the entire line.
How to Solve On-Site Challenges: Read the Process First
On-site challenges are not found in standard catalogs. Take the semiconductor tray cleaning process as an example. Tray materials and shapes, types of contaminants, and drying conditions after cleaning vary by customer. Even when the same cleaning equipment is introduced, if the process parameters are not set correctly, surface damage or residual contamination may occur instead.
The same applies to camera module defect rates. Fine particles generated during the lens assembly process often cannot be removed under general cleaning conditions, and increasing cleaning intensity creates a dilemma because it can cause physical damage to the module itself.
Huvics first analyzes the overall manufacturing process of the customer, identifies contamination paths and product characteristics, and then designs the equipment. Reading the process comes before building the equipment. Whether a fully automated, or full-auto, configuration or a manual method is suitable for the line is also determined during this analysis process, and close technical support continues even after equipment delivery.
Whether it is cleaning, lamination, or grinding, what these cases show is that protecting the basic cleanliness of a process ultimately comes down to how deeply the process is understood.
Protecting the fundamentals of a process is the hardest task. Cleaning, lamination, precision grinding — these processes may not carry flashy names, but if these steps become unstable, no advanced technology that follows can perform properly. In semiconductor manufacturing sites, basic cleanliness does not simply mean making things clean. It means the ability to accurately identify the different contamination paths in each process and block them with the right method. That ability protects yield, stabilizes the line, and ultimately determines product reliability.
Huvics is an advanced technology company that develops and manufactures automation equipment and
production systems across the semiconductor, LED, mobile, and cosmetics industries.
With top talent and continuous technological innovation, we support improvements in customer productivity and
the securing of quality competitiveness.
Huvics Contact
Phone: 031-374-8285
Email: cdpark@huvics.com
