Predicting Temperature-Dependent Aging Effects and Permanent Set of Vacuum Sealing Systems in Semiconductor Manufacturing Processes

Maintaining vacuum integrity for the semi-conductor manufacturing processes is extremely important to improve semiconductor fab productivity. The expensive machinery and the enormous costs of production downtime require reliable sealing systems which are designed to operate the longest possible preventative maintenance (PM) cycles. Being able to predict the lifetime of the sealing systems can help determine the optimum maintenance periods and hence increase profitability in costly wafer processing. The present contribution describes a finite element method to predict the lifetime of vacuum sealing systems limited by aging effects of the elastomer. Several different applications are considered including isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. Furthermore, homogeneous and inhomogeneous temperature fields are analyzed. Finally, the model predictions are compared to experimental data.