NexION 5000 Resources
For many years, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been the tool of choice for the trace analysis of elements like lead (Pb), arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), and copper (Cu) in bodily fluids such as urine, blood, serum and saliva, as well as in tissues.
For decades, the semiconductor industry has been designing new devices that are smaller, faster and consume less power than their predecessors. To maintain this trend, the critical features of these devices must also become smaller and have fewer defects.
Contaminants in chemicals used during manufacturing processes have a direct impact on product yield and reliability of semiconductor devices. Within the whole process of integrated circuit manufacturing, wafers are sent for repeated cleaning using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).
The production of electronic devices is a complex process that requires the use of ultra-pure chemicals during the manufacturing steps. High-purity-grade sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is generally used for cleaning components and etching all metal and organic impurities on silicon wafers.
The most commonly used organic chemicals in integrated circuit (IC) fabrication are isopropyl alcohol (IPA), propylene glycol methyl ether acetate (PGMEA), propylene glycol methyl ether (PGME), and n-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP). These solvents can leave behind organic film residues with metallic and non-metallic contamination on the wafers, so high-purity grades are mandated for advanced semiconductor processes.
During the production of semiconductor devices, it is crucial to ensure that the silicon wafers are free of contaminants and impurities. The use of high-purity chemicals during the cleaning process is critical to the semiconductor product’s overall quality and performance. Therefore, it is essential to analyze electronic-grade hydrochloric acid (HCl) and hydrogen peroxide for the presence of trace metal contaminants.
Rare earth elements (REEs) exhibit many optical, electrical, and magnetic properties, and therefore play an irreplaceable role in high-tech photoelectromagnetic materials. At present, the widely used color TV phosphors, Ni-H batteries, high-performance magnetic materials, etc. are all examples of rare earth elements in high-tech applications.
Since ultrapure water (UPW) is used throughout the semiconductor industry in a variety of applications, impurities need to be controlled as these will directly impact the quality and overall yield of semiconductor products. ICP-MS is often used to accurately quantify sub-ppt concentrations of impurities due to its ability to provide accurate quantification of elements at low concentrations.
Nitric acid is widely used throughout the semiconductor and electronics industry. Various purity grades are required depending on the application and the intended use. For this reason, the semiconductor industry has required ever-lower detection of a broad range of impurities, including non-metallic elements, in nitric acid solutions in order to meet manufacturing requirements.
As semiconductor manufacturing processes are being performed at increasing micro-levels, the demand for ICP-MS instrumentation capable of analyzing non-metallic elements at ultra-trace concentrations has grown.
Copper (Cu) is widely used due to its high electrical and thermal conductivity, strong corrosion resistance, excellent workability and moderate strength. It is one of the few metals used most commonly in its pure form, and ultra-pure copper specifically is the standard material used in the bonding wire of most integrated circuits and the cables for audio devices.
Most of the copper (Cu) concentrates produced globally contain some impurities, which can affect the price as copper concentrates containing high levels of impurities are not accepted by some smelters.
Interferences will always occur in ICP-MS and need to be dealt with. However, the NexION® 5000 multi-quadrupole ICP-MS with quadrupole Universal Cell is able to effectively and reproducibly remove spectral interferences leading to improved accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility, while solving problems difficult for single-quadrupole or even high-resolution ICP-MS instruments.
PerkinElmer’s AMS system provides a number of benefits to simplify analysis of high-matrix samples with theNexION family of ICP-MS instruments. By introducing a flow of argon into the spray chamber neck, the aerosol stream is diluted,allowing for more efficient ionization, fewer matrix effects, and less deposition on the interface cones, which results in simplifiedsample preparation and higher quality data.
Unlike other ICP-MS systems on the market that utilize conventional 40-MHz or 27-MHz commercially available generators which are typically customized and modified to work with ICP-MS instruments, the NexION® 1000/2000/5000 ICP-MS systems feature a 34-MHz frequency free-running RF generator, which was developed specifically for applications using ICP-MS systems.
The novel design of the second-generation Triple Cone Interface with patent-pending OmniRing™ was developed specifically for the NexION® 5000 multi-quadrupole ICP-MS with both sensitivity and stability in mind. It builds on the Triple Cone Interface geometry of the NexION series and provides unique solutions to space-charge effects based on the simple, yet highly effective OmniRing technology.