[labnetwork] FW: DIW maintenance

[Miller, Timothy J]

Matthieu,

The annual cost depends not only on system size, but more so as to what level of purity is needed.

Most research facilities appear to be happy with a simple RO-Mixed bed-UV configuration, which will deliver 18.2 MegOhm-cm water.  

If you want to approach to level of purity used in any of the current wafer fabs, then you have to add nitrogen blanketing on the tanks, degas membranes, boron (and perhaps silica) monitoring, temperature control, ultrafiltration, and virgin resin in the mixed beds.  All of which take you to higher levels of purity, and all of which come with a price.

You just have to select the level of technology you deem necessary for your facility, and that your budget can support.

Personal observation:  It never ceases to amaze me how little effort the research community puts into understanding the characteristics of the ultra-pure water they pour directly over their samples.  The semiconductor industry expends a lot of effort to determine acceptable levels of specific organics and ions, while those in research centers are quite happy to base everything on 18.2 MegOhm-cm resistivity, which is a figure of merit the semiconductor industry left behind 20 years ago.

If you don't mind sharing, you could send me a quick description of how your system is configured and the normal levels of use, and I'll see if anything looks out of line.  Will have to wait until the UPW conference November 13-14 is over.

Tim Miller
Purdue University - Birck Nanotechnology Center
1205 West State Street
West Lafayette, IN
 

-----Original Message-----
From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Matthieu Nannini, Dr.
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 1:46 PM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: [labnetwork] DIW maintenance

Dear colleagues,

Reviewing my annual costs and trying to find places where I could save money I realized that one of my main maintenance expense was on DIW. I pay about 10,000$/y to a contractor that is doing monthly and annually maintenance on the mixed bed and anionic cylinders. I have full confidence in this contractor and I don't have to worry about the DIW plant. However, everytime I issue a PO I can't help but thinking it's quite expensive.

I'd like to know if I'm in the normal range or not.

Thanks

Matthieu
_______________________________________________
labnetwork mailing list
labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork