[labnetwork] HF storage

[Tony L Olsen]

Savitha

Unfortunately, I learned a long time ago that no matter how foolproof your system is, there is always a bigger fool.  I have also found that complex systems or exceptions tend to make things worse.  The simpler the system, the easier to follow and manage.

With that said, we developed a system that has worked well for us.  We have created several chemical categories.  Each category has a two-letter code and description (e.g., GA - General Acid, PR - Photoresist, HF - Hydrofluoric Acid, OA - Oxidizing Acid, SA - Sulfuric Acid, etc.).  We apply a chemical code sticker to EVERY chemical container that enters our facility - both chemicals supplied by Staff and those purchased separately by lab members.  The sticker is usually placed near the neck of the bottle.  The stickers are 1.25 X 1.625" in size.  The two-letter code is a 60pt font, while the description is only 11pt.  We place a similar, but larger sticker at every location where that chemical can be stored or used.  Those stickers are 4 x 3.25", with the code at 200pt and the description at 30pt.  For storage and usage, lab members simply have to match the code on the bottle to the code on the wet bench, fume hood, storage cabinet, or storage drawer.  If I find a chemical that needs some special handling or segregation I don't create an exception, I create a new category.

We decided not to try any color coding for two primary reasons:  1) yellow lights distort colors and 2) color blindness.

Prior to this system, I was frequently finding chemicals where they shouldn't be.  Since this system was implemented, I have rarely seen a violation (refer to my first statement).  This approach may not necessarily address your real concern, but it has eased my worries considerably.  In my opinion, using a different color bottle would only be effective if it is the ONLY chemical in the facility of that or similar color bottle.  And, you may run in to supply chain issues for non-standard bottles once in a while.

We provide both 49% HF and 6:1 BOE in gallon bottles.


Tony Olsen
Nanofab Cleanroom Supervisor/Process Engineer
University of Utah
36 S Wasatch Drive, Suite 2500
Salt Lake City, UT  84112
801-587-0651
www.nanofab.utah.edu




From: Savitha P <savithap at iisc.ac.in>
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 05:19
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: Re: [labnetwork] HF storage

Hi!

We recently had a couple of occasions where users had mistakenly used Hydrofluoric acid in place of Hydrochloric acid during RCA cleaning. To avoid this, one of the suggestions we have received from our OLSEH is to store HF in a different coloured bottle (currently all acids are stored in white translucent polypropylene bottles which are properly labelled). Accordingly, we had considered storing HF in opaque, brown colour HDPE bottles. However, that was not deemed acceptable by a section of users saying bottles should be translucent so that acid level inside can be judged.

Could you please let me know how small quantities of HF are stored in your respective fabs. Is there any regulation governing storage of HF, so that we could implement the same.

Thanks and regards,
Savitha

Dr. Savitha P
Chief Operating Officer
National Nanofabrication Centre
Centre for Nanoscience and Engineering
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore - 560012
India.
Ph. +91 80 2293 3319
www.cense.iisc.ac.in<http://www.cense.iisc.ac.in>
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