Abstract
The importance of the contamination particle control in state of the art electron device production, such as a semiconductor, is increasing more than ever. Particle counter has been widely used as the technique of measuring particles suspended in the liquid phase and the gaseous phase. ITRS has been showing concretely the number concentration of particles, which should be controlled, in air, gas and liquid in contact with wafers. First, the leading-edge technology of the liquid-borne particle counter is shown, since the request about particle control in liquid of ITRS is considered as the typical information on a market trend. Meanwhile, the level of the particle contamination in process, such as a vacuum process does not have the shared roadmap. However, since TFT-LCD and PV which industrial scale has expanded rapidly, needs a high speed film deposition at a large substrate, the particle contamination control in vacuum process has been attracting attention. So the technique of the particle measurement in PECVD reactor is shown as an example of the particle measurement in vacuum processes which are expected as new application of a particle counter technology. Finally, a subject common to the measurement technique which uses a light scattering phenomenon as a principle, and the directivity of its improvement is shown.
