Fresenius' Journal of Fresenius J Anal Chem (1992) 343:693-694

@ Springer-Verlag 1992

Editorial

Symposium on "Ultratrace Analysis in High-Tech Materials"

This symposium was held in the Eduard-Zintl-Institute of the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, October 7 t h - 10th, 1991.

It was organized by the "Arbeitskreis fiir Mikro- und Spurenanalyse der Elemente (A.M.S.E1.)" of the Gesell- schaft Deutscher Chemiker - Fachgruppe "Analytische Chemie" and by the department "Chemische Analytik" of the faculty "Materialwissenschaft" at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt. Members of the scientific committee were: J. Dahmen (Darmstadt), M. Grasserbauer (Vienna), P. Hoffmann (Darmstadt), H. M. Ortner (Darmstadt), and P. Tsch6pel (Dortmund). The local organizers were J. Dahmen, P. Hoffmann, and H. M. Ortner.

The topic was chosen, because "high-tech" materials are a challenge for Analytical Chemistry on account of the rapid development and of the complex production procedures. Particularly, impurities and dope elements should be deter- mined in extremely low concentrations. The point of main effort in the necessary development is ultratrace analysis in metallic and ceramic materials, in glasses, in polymers and in compound materials which gain rising importance in high-tech applications. Additionally, for solid materials topochemical ways of characterization of high lateral and depth resolution are an essential feature. Microelectronics set a high standard promoting the bulk and topochemical analysis and challenging them furthermore. In the pro- duction of highly integrated semiconductor chips the claim in purity has reached the ng/g (ppb) region. A solution of the problems in this field can only be found by an in- terdisciplinary coworkership between manufacturers and users.

114 participants attended the conference, mainly from FR Germany, and from Austria, France, Great-Britain, The Netherlands, and from the former Soviet Union.

The symposium was sponsored by the industry: CEM GmbH. (Moers), Chemisch-Analytisches Laboratorium (Darmstadt), Berghof Labor- und Automationstechnik (Eningen), Bfichi Laboratoriumstechnik (G6ppingen), Kiirner Analysentechnik (Rosenheim), Merck (Darmstadt), Prolabo/Spectrotec (Paris/Grol3-Gerau), Tracor Europa (Bruchsal), Varian (Darmstadt) and by the Commission of the European Communities, Brussels.

The scientific programme contained 16 invited lectures, 20 discussion papers, 17 poster contributions and a work- shop on "microwave-digestion". H. M. Ortner gave an intro- ductory review paper on the significance of ultratrace analy- sis for material characterization and on the influence of

microelectronics for the development of ultratrace analytical techniques. V. Koppe stated that "purity" can only be seen in connection with the application of the material.

The session "process chemicals" was introduced by a lecture given by J. Dahmen, in which different analytical methods, compound processes, and the "purity concept" were discussed in detail. R. Naumann discussed the appli- cation of electrochemical methods in ultratrace analysis of salts of high purity. The discussion papers of this session were devoted to the determination of extremely low contents (ng/g and less) of impurities in acids, organic solvents, in other process chemicals and in process gases, furthermore to special analytical procedures and to "speciation" of trace compounds.

The session "refractory metals" dealt with the charac- terization and application of these materials in mi- croelectronics and was dedicated to the coworkership of numerous institutions in the working group COST 503 II of the European Communities (chairman: H. M. Ortner). G. Wfinsch discussed relevant trace-matrix separations, V. Krivan reviewed the methods of activation analysis, W. B16dorn reported on the application of simultaneous atomic spectrometry, P. Wilhartitz was engaged in the aspect of respective quality assurance in production, H. Hutter showed the possibilities of 3D-secondary ion mass spec- trometry, S. Grazhulene reported on the characterization of ultrapure materials for microelectronic parts by numerous analytical methods, and R. Hfinert discussed the develop- ment of the production of extremely pure refractory metal and silicide powders and their routine purity control.

One session of the symposium dealt with different matrices: G. Kudermann discussed high purity aluminium and R. P. H. Garten reported on the characterization of high-tech ceramic materials. The discussion papers covered the materials aluminium, aluminium oxide, glass, graphite, silicon dioxide and perfluorinated polymers. A special device of atomic fluorescence spectrometry was discussed in this part, too.

The workshop "microwave-digestion" was introduced by a review of K. M. Kuss, the dissolution of reaction inert carbon compounds was discussed and 5 microwave digestion apparatus of different manufacturers were introduced.

The session "semiconductor materials" was opened by an overview of G. Stingeder, dealing with the importance of Analytical Chemistry in microelectronics. W. Wegscheider showed the improvement of atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma by a multivariate cali-

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bration procedure. Further discussions dealt with the prob- lem of surface and bulk analysis ofmicroelectronic materials.

The symposium gave a nearly complete overview on methods which are applied in the ultratrace analysis of ma- terials of high purity. The application of a special method is dependent on the given problem. Qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, determination of microstructures, speciation and lateral and depth profiles are of special in- terest. The multilateral discussions in the sessions and during the brakes showed, that numerous analytical problems have

still to be solved. That can only be accomplished by the cooperation of manufacturers and analysts. This cooper- ation was stimulated by the symposium and the expectation was raised to reach more success in this field.

In order to make the results of the symposium available to the scientific community this special issue of "Fresenius' Journal of Analytical Chemistry" was prepared.

Peter Hoffmann