Columbus Chemical Industries (CCI) routinely manufactures Buffered Oxide Etchants (BOE’s) in bulk volumes for supply to the semiconductor market, packaged into convenient to handle gallon bottles or standard sized drums. BOE’s are blends of Hydrofluoric Acid 49%, Ammonium Fluoride 40% and water in various proprietary ratios. Addition of surfactants in the etchant formula can also increase the efficiency of wetting the substrate surface. Buffered Oxide Etchants are primarily used to etch thin films of silicon dioxide or silicon nitride.
Safe Etchant Component Handling
CCI specializes in safely handling the highly hazardous hydrofluoric acid component of Buffered Oxide Etch. Our top tier chemical handlers have years of experience and receive intense qualification training, as well as ongoing training, to expertly work with hydrofluoric acid.
At CCI, Buffered Oxide Etchants are manufactured under highly controlled and monitored conditions to ensure consistency and solid performance across all lots of the same formula. Our controlled manufacturing environments and packaging cells allow us to maintain the quality of the etchants high purity components throughout the process.
Each lot of raw material used, and each batch of BOE produced is tested per its set specification. SPC tracking options are also available for highly sensitive applications.
As specifications require, CCI also provides product filtering with particle count testing to ensure particles are below required thresholds.
Benefits of premixed BOE
There are many benefits in having buffered oxide etch premixed:
- Consistency across all lots of material
- Higher reproducibility
- Batch testing cost reduction
- Impurity levels guaranteed below set specifications
- Convenience of having a ready to use product
- Minimize handling of highly hazardous concentrated Hydrofluoric Acid
- Minimize storing hazardous raw materials onsite
- Elimination of need for mixing vessels/equipment
- Limiting shipments of hazmat materials from multiple vendors
CCI also provides warehousing and inventory management options for etchants. This allows the economic benefits of large scale batch sizing, while providing the convenience of delivery volumes based on your storage and usage requirements, ready to ship when needed from WI or AZ.
Contact CCI to discuss your etchant needs today
