Author: Tetsuo SHIMIZU – The Japanese semiconductor device industry has been losing momentum, and companies in the industry are making efforts to rebuild their profit structures. However, if we look at the industry worldwide, it still has momentum. Production output of semiconductors increased by approximately 60% during the 12 years between 200 and 2012, oligopolies are forming, and 3 major companies make up about 60% of total investment. Technologies for smaller semiconductor devices are emerging, and immersion double patterning exposure, EUV exposure, and DSA technologies are being researched for manufacturing semiconductor devices at the 10-nm level. Also, a 450-mm wafer consortium has been formed, mostly with members from Europe and the US, which is starting to investigate the practical use of large-diameter wafers. As technologies are refined and the industry considers moving toward large-diameter wafers, the requirements for fluids and gases used during film depositing, and etching, etc. are becoming stricter. This paper will discuss the latest mass flow controller (MFC) trends that go along with the industry’s move toward smaller semiconductor devices and large-diameter wafers.

Author: Hu LI – Problems with environmental pollution are emerging along with the rapid economic growth in China, and measures to protect the environment are becoming increasingly important. The 11th Chinese Five-Year Environmental Protection Plan (2006-2010) set total emission regulation targets for pollutants, and China achieved those goals within that period. The 12th Chinese Five-Year Environmental Protection Plan (2011-2015) contains even more environmental regulations, including environmental measures in various fields, such as air quality, water quality, soil quality, and solid waste. A Chinese national strategy has also been created to help the environmental industry evolve over the long term. This paper will mainly cover new environmental regulations in China since 2011. In the near future, environmental regulations and environmental preservation technologies and know-how that have been used in developed countries will probably be useful in the environmental protection field in China.

Author: Adam M. GILMORE Stephen M. COHEN – Water quality is one of the most significant global environmental concerns, making it one of the most impor tant areas of research for HORIBA’s fluorescence instruments. This article describes how our Fluorolog and FluoroMax spectrofluorometers and FluorEssence analysis software facilitate sensitive identification and quantification of natural and man-made sources of Colored Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) components important to water quality. The article focuses on the method of Excitation-Emission Matrix (EEM) which simultaneously measures the excitation (absorbance) and emission spectra for all fluorescent components in a water sample. The article emphasizes the most important aspect of the EEM method, which is the accurate correction of both the instrument’s spectral response and the influence of the light-absorbance properties of the sample as required for component identification and quantification. The future of water-quality fluorescence analysis is discussed in light of recognized potential applications and recent efforts to institute international standards for EEM methodology.

Author: Masakazu MINAMI – For the semiconductor manufacturing process that involves the liquid and solid precursors, a stable and reliable vapor delivery system is usually a critical portion to the success of the process. Moreover, it could offer the capability of monitor and control the vapor concentration for bubbling method, in addition to the vaporization. This paper introduces a new Vapor Concentration Control (VCC) system that combines the bubbling vaporization technology and vapor concentration control capabilities to achieve an intelligent solution in utilizing liquid and solid precursors.

Author: Tadahiro YASUDA – I introduce the efforts of miniaturization of the Mass Flow Controller (see Figure 1). It also leads to cost reduction solution and energy saving solutions, and high performance by reducing the unnecessary part. It is thought to be useful for new needs in the semiconductor process gas control. I introduce development of thinner mass flow controller which is main product of HORIBA STEC.

Author: Yoshinori OTSUKI – Recently, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) attract attention while the reduction of the consumption of the fossil fuel is demanded. On the other hand, high Dilution Factors (DFs) and low concentrations of gaseous components in the Constant Volume Sampling (CVS) are imposed by the intermittent operation of the engine in the PHEV. Such a dilution condition causes a numerical error of DF by the assumption of negligible ambient components and an analysis error of gaseous components. New emission measurement method which provides intermittent sampling synchronized with engine operation mode has been investigated in this study. The results showed the ability of proposed system to improve emissions and fuel economy measurement accuracy by increasing gaseous concentrations in the CVS system.

Author: Keiko KUWAMOTO – Exchangeable calcium ion (Ca2+) and potassium ion (K+) extracted with 1 mol/L ammonium acetate (NH4OAc) solution were measured with Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). Simple and quick measurements by AAS or ICPOES are difficult in the field because these are large analytical instruments. A simplified analysis was tried with the compact water quality meter <LAQUAtwin> (Ion Selective Electrode; ISE). In case of measurement of Ca2+ and K+ with ISE methods, the high NH4OAc concentration solution produced inaccurate results due to a potential difference shift. In this report, LAQUAtwin meters are used for soil sample measurements. The procedure used herein proves that Ca2+ and K+ are easily measurable using this procedure with the ISE methodology.

Author: Chihiro NAKAMURA – It is important for pH meter and Conductivity meter to provide proper operation, inspection and calibration in order to keep high reliability. Various regulation including Japanese Pharmacopoeia (16 revision) is requesting that Standard items such as stability must be confirmed with objective evidence when calibration is made. A digital simulator can inspect main unit and electrode individually. Therefore a digital simulator can inspect whether or not a main unit is working properly. Also we could rapidly found out 15% of electrodes had malfunction when we visited research laboratory in the university. This shows that this method is effective for inspection and calibration.

Author: Kohei TANAKA; Kazuhiro IRIE – In Japan, you drink water straight from the tap, damage is not necessarily done to the body. That is because advanced water disposal is performed in the water treatment plant. The Water Treatment & Environment product of HORIBA including a rotary residual chlorine meter supports those water disposals. In the water treatment plant, the processing using chlorine is indispensable processing for sterilization. There are also some methods of measuring residual chlorine and each has the feature. In this paper, firstly, processing in a water treatment plant is introduced. Next, the measurement principle of residual chlorine and the feature of residual chlorine meters are introduced.

Author: Tetsuya TAKIMOTO – Recently, handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers have been used widely in the field of on-site elemental analysis. Handheld XRF analyses can provide rapid material confirmation, alloy grade identification and field screening of outdoor samples. MESA-600/630 has been greatly improved the usability by new user interface, a large touch screen, and a longer-life battery. Therefore, this analyzer can be applied more flexible to various analytical fields. Additional empirical calibrations using optional software make particular applications such as quality control of special alloy and measurement of plating film thickness. In this article, we introduce features, functions and applications for MESA-600/630.

Author: Yasushi NAKATA; Emmanuel FROIGNEUX – Raman spectroscopy have been progressed with new technologies applied to specific applications. By combining microscopy, its sensitivity has been increased as several orders in these decades. Especially, some new technologies for Raman imaging has been developed and will open new analytical world. In this report, we explain new Raman application of pharmaceutics, carbon materials (graphen and carbon nanotube), and lithium ion battery. In these, Raman analytical technology used in HORIBA products are also introduced.

Author: Makoto UMEZAWA; Hirosuke SUGASAWA – The LA-960 particle size distribution measurement instrument with laser, diffraction/scattering is a next-generation model that was developed as the highest-end model of its type. The LA-960 is based on the LA-950V2 hardware design, which has a high level of design maturity and has been popular in the past, and has significantly improved analysis capabilities compared to that model. The following 5 points are features of the LA-960. 1. Improved minimum particle size measurement accuracy and reproducibility 2. Increased maximum measurable particle size 3. Introduction of the latest calculation algorithms 4. New software GUI 5. Data compatibility with the old model We would like to discuss the features of the instrument in detail. We will also provide actual measurement examples to show instrument performance.

Author: Satoru TANAKA; Satoko ISHIHARA; Yoko SHINOZAKI; Kyoko MITSUNARI; Makoto OHISHI – The Japanese character for “powder” is made up of two parts that mean “separate” and “rice”. Originally, grains like rice were crushed into small pieces. There are many types of powder around us, not limited to the “powder” that referred to crushed grains a long time ago. Some types of powder are suspended powders that are deemed to be harmful, such as fine particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5). More familiar types of powder would be in the form of medicine or food. We get benefits from many types of powders in our daily lives, from flour to home appliances and even space-related technologies.