Challenge
Water is at the very heart of semiconductor manufacturing. This wafer manufacturer in Texas needed assurance of an extremely consistent ultrapure water product with 18 megohm-cm resistivity. They needed to know they would have reliable 24-hour per day, uninterrupted ultrapure water performance to ensure the high wafer yields required to remain competitive in today’s semiconductor industry.
Solution
Eliminate Chemical Regenerants with Veolia EDI
The Veolia EDI (Figure 1) is the key building block for producing ultrapure water for wafer fabrication in this 700 gpm facility, designed, built and maintained by Veolia. Reliable 24-hour per day, uninterrupted performance is what the customer gets—no excuses, no concerns for lost productivity. Because the Veolia EDI process regenerates electrically, it requires no acid or caustic regenerants. Veolia EDI removes 99%+ of the mineral load of ROpretreated water, including silica boron and CO2, and delivers treated water of exceptional purity.
Demineralizing with electricity, not chemicals, is a real benefit for this enduser, as the process produces no regenerant waste, and it doesn’t have the associated waste disposal hassle. The system also takes up only 20% of the floor space required for a conventional deionized (DI) system.
The Veolia Brand means quality you can depend upon. Veolia pays attention to all the details, from PVDF piping to convenient local service. The right summarizes the project.
Project Summary
Location: Central Texas
Commissioned: February 1997
Application: Ultrapure water for water fabrication
Feedwater source: City of Sherman municipal water treated with Veolia EDR
Feedwater quality: 10-15 µS/cm
Product quality: 18 megohm-cm resistivity
Capacity: 700 gpm (2.7 m3 /h)
Technology: Reverse osmosis (RO) and electrodeionization (EDI)