Multi-tech from DuPont enables reliable supply of ultrapure water, minimum liquid discharge, and maximum recovery of waste chemicals
The microelectronics market counts on water as a key raw material in the fabrication of devices such as semiconductors, flat panel displays, photovoltaics, and more. Ultra Pure Water (UPW) is the primary cleaning solvent used to rinse away remnants during the production process. Today’s integrated circuits are so complex that even the smallest contaminant can prevent a circuit from functioning properly. Meanwhile, stricter discharge standards and sustainable development concepts have been driving end users to reclaim more wastewater and chemicals to reach the minimum liquid discharge and even zero liquid discharge.
For years, DuPont Water Solutions has been meeting the needs of end users, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and service companies around the world. Our experience and range of solutions make us the perfect partner for the production of Ultra Pure Water in microelectronics processing, wastewater reuse, waste chemicals recovery, and purification through cutting edge ultrafiltration (UF), membrane bioreactors (MBR), degasification membranes, reverse osmosis (RO) and ion exchange resin (IER) technologies.
Comprehensive solutions for your needs
Protection of the entire purification line
The removal of hardness or large particles, such as suspended solids and colloids, prior to primary lines are key steps to guarantee the best performance of downstream demineralization treatments.
Pretreatment with Ultrafiltration
Compared with multimedia filter (MMF), DuPont Ultrafiltration (UF) technologies have proven their excellent performance in removal of suspended solids, colloids, and algae to better protect the downstream RO system with improved stability and productivity. Now, with the enhanced capacity of DuPont™ IntegraFlux™, inge®, and MEMCOR® technologies, DuPont has the widest range of UF products from inside-out to outside-in, PES to PVDF, and pressured UF to submerged UF. Based on feed water quality and customer requirement, DuPont can offer the most suitable UF products with high stability, low-energy, and less chemical consumption.
Softening with Ion Exchange Resin
DuPont’s softening Ion Exchange Resins (IER) remove the hardness traces to protect and increase the recovery of RO units. DuPont has both strong acid cation and weak acid cation ion exchange resins that can be used for softening.
Learn more about our UPW pretreatment products by visiting our product finder.
Removal of dissolved impurities to reach pre-Ultra Pure Water quality
Demineralization with Ion Exchange Resins (IER) has been a very common technology in semiconductor plants since the 1990’s. DuPont has selected and developed a special range of IERs to provide immediate high-quality water in front of reverse osmosis (RO) units.
DuPont Ligasep™ degasification membranes can effectively remove CO2 from water. Compared with a traditional degassing tower, DuPont Ligasep™ has a higher removal rate, smaller footprint, and higher cleanliness.
DuPont FilmTec™ is the inventor of thin film composite reverse osmosis, which is at the core of modern RO technology. FilmTec™ RO is famous for its consistent high quality and robust portfolio, which creates lower cost for the entire lifecycle. DuPont developed tailored semiconductor grade RO (SG) with higher rejection of lower molecular organics and accelerated total organic carbon (TOC) rinse down.
FilmTec™ ECO series RO elements have leading performance with lower energy consumption. FilmTec™ Fortilife™ CR100 RO elements have leading fouling resistance and reliable performance under feed water with higher fouling potential.
Mixed bed demineralization creates Ultra Pure Water quality immediately after RO units. DuPont AmberTec™ UP resins’ efficiency and high-performance ratings have been acknowledged by the semiconductor industry for over 25 years.
Learn more about our UPW primary loop products by visiting our product finder.
Elimination of trace contaminants for highest Ultra Pure Water quality
Manufacturing processes in microelectronics have stringent requirements on UPW quality, including resistivity, metal, TOC, boron, dissolved oxygen, particles and more.
Final polishing mixed bed resins
To reach the higher requirement on resistivity, metal, and TOC, selecting a suitable final polishing mixed bed resin is very important. DuPont AmberTec™ final polishing mixed bed (MB) resins are widely recognized due to proven consistent and reliable performance. In general, the below final polishing MB resins from DuPont can be used based on the required UPW quality and practice in different industries:
- Solar panel industry: AmberTec™ MR-3 LC H/OH, AmberTec™ MR-300 UPW H/OH
- Display panel industry: AmberTec™ UP6150, AmberTec™ MR-300 UPW H/OH
- Semiconductor industry: AmberTec™ UP6040, AmberTec™ MR-450 UPW H/OH, AmberTec™ MR-300 UPW H/OH
Boron selective resin AmberTec™
Boron removal resin is needed when the boron concentration in feed water is high or the manufacturing process has stringent requirements on boron. DuPont developed the tailored semiconductor grade boron selective resin AmberTec™ UP7530 with lower TOC, higher working capacity, and uniform particle size, which can be used in UPW polishing loop.
Degasification membrane
For oxygen removal in UPW water, degasification membrane is widely used. The unique skinned semi-dense and genuine gas permeable membrane in DuPont Ligasep™ degasification modules simplify the system design and allow for better performance.
Learn more about our UPW polishing loop products by visiting our product finder.
Maximizing the value of wastewater
A large amount of water is consumed in the microelectronic industry. To save water and achieve sustainable business development, the industry has been keen to reclaim wastewater generated from various manufacturing processes. Depending on the origin of wastewater composition and concentrations, suitable products and treatment processes can vary greatly. Different technologies and products from DuPont are being used to reclaim the wastewater or valuable matters in wastewater.
Reverse osmosis (RO)
RO has been extensively utilized to reduce impurities prior to recycling back to the feed water of UPW or for reuse as utility water. Based on the feed water characteristics and customer needs, different RO products from DuPont FilmTec™ can be used. FilmTec™ ECO series RO elements are suitable for wastewater with lower fouling potential and lowest operational cost. FilmTec™ Fortilife™ CR series RO elements are suitable for wastewater with higher fouling potential and required higher permeate quality. FilmTec™ Fortilife™ XC series RO elements are for high recovery reclaim and reuse RO systems intended to treat the RO brine up to a TDS concentration of 70,000-80,000 ppm. These elements are intended for high fouling high salinity processes where reliability and cleaning frequency are high priorities.
Ion exchange resin, UF, MBR and degasification membrane
Ion exchange resins, ultrafiltration, and membrane degasification technologies are also adopted to reuse water and/or recycle resources from wastewater. The following are some examples:
- Separation of copper from wastewater with chelating resin AmberSep™ IRC748 and AmberSep™ M4195
- Separation of tetra-methyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) from wastewater with high performance weak acid cation (WAC) resins
- Separation of fine particles from dicing saw (DS), back grinding (BG), and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) wastewater with UF products from DuPont
- Enhance organic wastewater reuse by membrane bioreactor (MBR) from DuPont MEMCOR®
- Remove ammonia from caustic wastewater with DuPont Ligasep™ membrane degasification modules
Learn more about our microelectronics reclaming loop products by visiting our product finder.
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Pretreatment
Protection of the entire purification line
The removal of hardness or large particles, such as suspended solids and colloids, prior to primary lines are key steps to guarantee the best performance of downstream demineralization treatments.
Pretreatment with Ultrafiltration
Compared with multimedia filter (MMF), DuPont Ultrafiltration (UF) technologies have proven their excellent performance in removal of suspended solids, colloids, and algae to better protect the downstream RO system with improved stability and productivity. Now, with the enhanced capacity of DuPont™ IntegraFlux™, inge®, and MEMCOR® technologies, DuPont has the widest range of UF products from inside-out to outside-in, PES to PVDF, and pressured UF to submerged UF. Based on feed water quality and customer requirement, DuPont can offer the most suitable UF products with high stability, low-energy, and less chemical consumption.
Softening with Ion Exchange Resin
DuPont’s softening Ion Exchange Resins (IER) remove the hardness traces to protect and increase the recovery of RO units. DuPont has both strong acid cation and weak acid cation ion exchange resins that can be used for softening.
Learn more about our UPW pretreatment products by visiting our product finder.
-
Primary Loop Demineralization
Removal of dissolved impurities to reach pre-Ultra Pure Water quality
Demineralization with Ion Exchange Resins (IER) has been a very common technology in semiconductor plants since the 1990’s. DuPont has selected and developed a special range of IERs to provide immediate high-quality water in front of reverse osmosis (RO) units.
DuPont Ligasep™ degasification membranes can effectively remove CO2 from water. Compared with a traditional degassing tower, DuPont Ligasep™ has a higher removal rate, smaller footprint, and higher cleanliness.
DuPont FilmTec™ is the inventor of thin film composite reverse osmosis, which is at the core of modern RO technology. FilmTec™ RO is famous for its consistent high quality and robust portfolio, which creates lower cost for the entire lifecycle. DuPont developed tailored semiconductor grade RO (SG) with higher rejection of lower molecular organics and accelerated total organic carbon (TOC) rinse down.
FilmTec™ ECO series RO elements have leading performance with lower energy consumption. FilmTec™ Fortilife™ CR100 RO elements have leading fouling resistance and reliable performance under feed water with higher fouling potential.
Mixed bed demineralization creates Ultra Pure Water quality immediately after RO units. DuPont AmberTec™ UP resins’ efficiency and high-performance ratings have been acknowledged by the semiconductor industry for over 25 years.
Learn more about our UPW primary loop products by visiting our product finder.
-
Polishing Loop
Elimination of trace contaminants for highest Ultra Pure Water quality
Manufacturing processes in microelectronics have stringent requirements on UPW quality, including resistivity, metal, TOC, boron, dissolved oxygen, particles and more.
Final polishing mixed bed resins
To reach the higher requirement on resistivity, metal, and TOC, selecting a suitable final polishing mixed bed resin is very important. DuPont AmberTec™ final polishing mixed bed (MB) resins are widely recognized due to proven consistent and reliable performance. In general, the below final polishing MB resins from DuPont can be used based on the required UPW quality and practice in different industries:
- Solar panel industry: AmberTec™ MR-3 LC H/OH, AmberTec™ MR-300 UPW H/OH
- Display panel industry: AmberTec™ UP6150, AmberTec™ MR-300 UPW H/OH
- Semiconductor industry: AmberTec™ UP6040, AmberTec™ MR-450 UPW H/OH, AmberTec™ MR-300 UPW H/OH
Boron selective resin AmberTec™
Boron removal resin is needed when the boron concentration in feed water is high or the manufacturing process has stringent requirements on boron. DuPont developed the tailored semiconductor grade boron selective resin AmberTec™ UP7530 with lower TOC, higher working capacity, and uniform particle size, which can be used in UPW polishing loop.
Degasification membrane
For oxygen removal in UPW water, degasification membrane is widely used. The unique skinned semi-dense and genuine gas permeable membrane in DuPont Ligasep™ degasification modules simplify the system design and allow for better performance.
Learn more about our UPW polishing loop products by visiting our product finder.
-
Reclaiming Loop
Maximizing the value of wastewater
A large amount of water is consumed in the microelectronic industry. To save water and achieve sustainable business development, the industry has been keen to reclaim wastewater generated from various manufacturing processes. Depending on the origin of wastewater composition and concentrations, suitable products and treatment processes can vary greatly. Different technologies and products from DuPont are being used to reclaim the wastewater or valuable matters in wastewater.
Reverse osmosis (RO)
RO has been extensively utilized to reduce impurities prior to recycling back to the feed water of UPW or for reuse as utility water. Based on the feed water characteristics and customer needs, different RO products from DuPont FilmTec™ can be used. FilmTec™ ECO series RO elements are suitable for wastewater with lower fouling potential and lowest operational cost. FilmTec™ Fortilife™ CR series RO elements are suitable for wastewater with higher fouling potential and required higher permeate quality. FilmTec™ Fortilife™ XC series RO elements are for high recovery reclaim and reuse RO systems intended to treat the RO brine up to a TDS concentration of 70,000-80,000 ppm. These elements are intended for high fouling high salinity processes where reliability and cleaning frequency are high priorities.
Ion exchange resin, UF, MBR and degasification membrane
Ion exchange resins, ultrafiltration, and membrane degasification technologies are also adopted to reuse water and/or recycle resources from wastewater. The following are some examples:
- Separation of copper from wastewater with chelating resin AmberSep™ IRC748 and AmberSep™ M4195
- Separation of tetra-methyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) from wastewater with high performance weak acid cation (WAC) resins
- Separation of fine particles from dicing saw (DS), back grinding (BG), and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) wastewater with UF products from DuPont
- Enhance organic wastewater reuse by membrane bioreactor (MBR) from DuPont MEMCOR®
- Remove ammonia from caustic wastewater with DuPont Ligasep™ membrane degasification modules
Learn more about our microelectronics reclaming loop products by visiting our product finder.
Find products for the microelectronics industry
View a list of products suitable for the production of ultrapure water in microelectronic manufacturing.
Related technologies
Our technologies provide industry-leading, long-lasting, and cost-effective solutions. Learn more about the technologies relevant to the microelectronics industry.
UF uses a membrane barrier to exclude colloids, bacteria, and more; for pretreatment in demineralization, industrial water production, drinking water production, or wastewater reuse.
RO is a pressure-driven separation process that reduces the smallest of solute particles and treats most ions and large molecules in the water.
IX uses polymeric resins capable of exchanging ions; applications include softening, bulk demineralization, trace contaminants removal, and condensate water polishing.
EDI is used as a polisher for boiler and ultrapure water makeup and can deliver the lowest conductivities, sodium, and silica in the product without chemical regeneration.
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