ICP-MS is gaining expanded use in semiconductor fabrication due to its sensitivity and its ability to measure accurately up to 70 metals in a very short period of time. As a laboratory serving the semiconductor industry, we now use ICP-MS to check nearly every chemical component or process used to process wafers or to which wafers have been exposed (see Table 1). Since its introduction in 1984, great gains have been made in lowering detection limits using a quadropole spectrometer on the ICP. Suddenly, accurate measurements in the ppb-ppt level became possible. It was soon recognized, however, that there was an argon-oxygen interference that made it impossible to measure low levels of Fe, Ca, and K, key elements that contaminate wafers.
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