Conax Technologies LeakDefender™ Thermocouples

LeakDefender™ brand thermocouples are used in ASM® EPSILON® Reactors in conjunction with the TC Sentry System™ to monitor for quartz sheath leaks in real time. In the harsh environment of a reactor, the quartz sheath is attacked and can fail prematurely. This will cause at least one or potentially many wafers to be contaminated and scrapped, resulting in reduced tool yield. This leakage cannot be detected right away with standard TCs, and it can lead to: Operator safety concerns resulting from process gases leaking out and atmosphere leaking in Wafer yield loss due to surface defects Damage to the tool that can lead to premature chamber change and potential tool explosion Costly unscheduled tool downtime Conax Technologies' new LeakDefender™ thermocouples are used to monitor the quartz sheaths for gas leaks in real time and allow for fast shut down of the reactor. When a leak is detected in any of the TCs, the TC Sentry System™ can immediately shut down the reactor to avoid costly contamination to the chamber and minimize or totally eliminate wafer loss.