Nanomaterials in the semiconductor industry: An end-user industrial perspective

Dr. Dimiter Prodanov from Imec gives an end-user industrial perspective on the vital role of nanomaterials in today’s semiconductor industry and their safe use.

Nanomaterials are broadly defined as those materials that have a certain percentage of particles at the nanoscale, between 1 and 100 nanometres1. While the size cut-off used in the definitions is somewhat arbitrary, it nevertheless conveys the important fact that properties of materials with nanoscale features (e.g. nanoforms) can substantially differ from the properties of “macro” materials in bulk.

 

Understanding the properties of engineered nano-materials and how they behave in living systems, such as the human body, is a relatively new area of scientific study. It becomes increasingly clear that harmful properties of nanoforms sometimes do not correlate with the toxicological profile of the bulk materials. One of the challenges in that respect is the identification of the best metric for toxicological assessment. A related challenge is how to define a ‘nanomaterial’.

 

To address these challenges international bodies, such as the European Union, have orchestrated substantial efforts. As part of this ongoing effort, the European Commission funds the NanoStreeM project. The NanoStreeM project is funded under H2020 grant agreement 688194 of the European Commission. The goals of the project are to promote good practices by identifying applicable standards – and to identify gaps in methodologies and directions for further investigations to support governance of the occupational risk induced using nanomaterials in the semiconductor industry.

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