Who gave the best presentations in UPM 2022?

Congratulations to the winners of the UPM 2022 Best Presentation Awards!

Phillipe Rychen, Global Director of Innovation at Ovivo and Alois Goller, Lead Systems Engineer at Lam Research for their presentation Establishing Correlations between UPW Quality and Particle Deposition on Silicon 300mm Wafers.

How does a facility engineer ensure ultrapure water (UPW) quality without understanding the impact particle contamination can have on the wafer? There is a distinct lack of controlled experiments which shed light on the correlation between UPW contamination and wafer defectivity, especially as collaboration across the supply chain is required to bring about such studies. Ovivo and Lam Research set out to make an impact on this field of study. Unlike previous experiments, this paper was investigated on a full-scale UPW plant, and as such contributed significantly to ongoing research efforts on this subject.

Taimur Burki, Program Manager at Intel for his presentation PFAS - The Next Great Wastewater Challenge.

PFAS is everywhere in a semiconductor fab – it is an issue which few operators can ignore as the mounting regulatory climate scrutinizes the use of PFAS. Burki presents an overview of the incoming legal boundaries, as well as the limits of current technological capabilities for the elimination of short-chain PFAS compounds. View the presentation to discover opportunities from the perspective of an Integrated Device Manufacturer, and how the technologies which the author envisages having an impact on the treatment of PFAS in wastewater.

Jochen Ruth, SLS Director of Microelectronics – Europe, and Gerd Heser, Director of Product Planning and Water Management at Pall for their presentation The Value of Wastewater.

As sustainability commitments soar in terms of corporate importance, water engineers in semiconductor facilities must prioritize streams for reuse. This presentation gives an overview of some of the low-hanging fruit which may provide an avenue for relatively low-CAPEX sustainability wins. What is more, the authors have reported on the different angle they’ve taken for their UPM 2023 presentation – focusing on the growth of Silicon Carbide substrates as the electric vehicle market takes off, as well as what that means for water. View the 2023 insights here.

Lindsey Sullivan, Senior Project Engineer at FTD Solutions for her presentation UPW Distribution Design, Operation and Risk Management in Facility 2.0.

Sullivan presented a rigorous statistical approach towards managing ultrapure water (UPW) system capacity, using tools such as Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) and hydraulic models to understand risk in UPW systems. Not only did the presented paper provide direct operational takeaways for managing risk, but it opened doors for potential gains in sustainability and capital efficiency.