The elemental analysis of semiconductor materials often presents a broad variety of analytical challenges. Even small elemental impurities can significantly impact the functionality and performance on a wafer, necessitating a decrease in detection limits to the sub-ppt range and an increase in the number of elements of interest. The diversity of materials analyzed for semiconductor applications is vast and often includes elemental main components that can cause interferences in inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), e.g., Si- or P-based molecules. Additionally, volatile species with varying hetero elements are often impurities of interest. In such cases, knowing the total elemental content of samples may not be enough, and a combination of ICP-MS with gas chromatography (GC) or liquid chromatography (LC) is required to differentiate between species.

Achieving the necessary detection limits in chemically demanding matrices requires a holistic approach, encompassing the lab environment, equipment, and sample handling. This presentation aims to demonstrate the advancements in elemental analysis for semiconductor materials at Merck's central analytics department, using multiple analytical challenges in clean-room ICP-MS, sample preparation, GC-ICP-MS, and LC-ICP-MS as examples.