PNL QUALITY EXAMINER

The surging Arizona semiconductor and microelectronic manufacturing industries have multiplied exponentially to meet the everyday needs of consumer usage of power gadgets from smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, batteries, solar power, and medical devices. The Phoenix Metro is home to more than seventy-five semiconductor companies including SEMI, EMD Electronics, Intel, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. In addition, suppliers and vendors to the semiconductor industries which supply process gas, chemicals, and cleaning, are building facilities close to their clientele companies.

Arizona’s chip narrative began in 1949, when Motorola opened a research lab in Phoenix that later manufactured transistors, a type of semiconductor. Then ASM came to Phoenix in 1976, followed by Intel opening its first semiconductor factory in Chandler in 1980, becoming one of the state’s largest employers. In May 2020 TSMC came to Arizona with plans to build three fabs in Arizona worth $65 billion, the largest foreign direct investment in the state’s history. Sunlit Chemicals and forty semiconductor suppliers have built plants in Arizona since 2020.

The Chips Act invigorated production, while Arizona was simultaneously transforming into the hub for industry construction.  The CHIPS and Science Act is a U.S. federal statute enacted by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 9, 2022. The CHIPS Act allocated $52 billion to the Department of Defense to fund microelectronics research, fabrication, and workforce training. An additional $500 million goes to the Department of State to coordinate with foreign government partners on semiconductor supply chain security.

PNL has been serving the semiconductor industry for decades, providing quality control and nondestructive testing services during fabrication and erection of steel structures including structural steel welding, high strength bolts, fireproofing, firestopping, piping and tank systems, and mechanical systems. We also supply contractor’s quality control during installation of fabrication tool lines including inspection of hangars, labels, welds, pressure testing, and overall verification to plans and specifications. 

Contact Andrew Zuran by calling 602-431-8887 or emailing him at andrew@pnltest.com for more information on our semiconductor and manufacturing services. 

Helium leak testing is a very high sensitivity test method that is used in process and manufacturing plants to verify leak tight components in critical and high purity piping systems. It is a technique that uses a mass spectrometer to detect the presence of helium, or other gases, in vacuum or pressurized systems.

In 1815 Humphry Davy developed a safety lamp to detect natural gas. The topophone, invented in 1879, was the first acoustic device used to identify the source of a sound. By the early 1900’s simple methods like soap bubbles were used to detect leaks in pipelines. There is a lengthy history behind the technological innovations of leak testing.

Mass spectrometer leak testing is a non-destructive method used to detect and measure leaks in semiconductor components and systems. In the semiconductor industry, leak testing is crucial because it ensures the integrity of sealed devices, maintaining precise vacuum conditions within manufacturing chambers, which are essential for producing high-quality semiconductors. Tiny leaks can significantly impact the manufacturing process and compromise the functionality of the final product by allowing contaminants to enter the system, potentially affecting device performance and yield. Among the advantages of helium leak testing are maintaining vacuum integrity, preventing contamination, process control, quality assurance, and early detection.

Helium is primarily chosen as the gas for mass spectrometer leak testing because it is a very small, inert gas molecule with a low natural presence in the atmosphere, making it easily detectable by a mass spectrometer even in minute quantities when escaping through a leak, while also being safe and non-reactive with most materials being tested.

There are three main techniques for helium leak testing: sniffing, spraying and bagging. The best technique depends on the part’s size and geometry, the required sensitivity, and the available resources.

A sniffer probe is used to scan a pressurized part for leaks. The probe is connected to a helium mass spectrometer and is moved around areas like joints or gaskets. Sniffing is less sensitive than other methods, but it can be the only option if the part is too thin to be expelled.

In spraying, a vacuum is created in the part, then helium is sprayed over the surface. A leak detector is then used to see if any helium has made its way into the part.

For bagging, the component is placed in a pressurized helium chamber and sealed in. A sniffer probe is then used to detect leaks in the container.

At PNL we have certified technicians who can provide a variety of leak testing for your testing projects, including pressure change, bubble testing, voltage discharge, and helium leak testing.

For more information contact: Andrew Zuran by phone at 602-431-8887 or email at andrew@pnltest.com. 

Installation of high purity process piping systems is required in many types of manufacturing facilities and installations including semiconductor and microelectronic manufacturing, pharmaceutical, hospital, and food industries.  This article will focus on the inspection, examination, and testing requirements for ensuring these systems are properly installed and safe to operate.  The design, fabrication, assembly, erection, inspection, examination, and testing of these systems is generally specified to the ASME B31.3 Process Piping Code Section which is a subsection of the ASME B31 Code for Pressure Piping. 

The latest update to the ASME B31.3 Process Piping Code is the 2022 edition which is the reference basis for this article.  Chapter X of this Code pertains to piping designated by the owner as being High Purity Fluid Service.  Section U340 pertains to inspection and specifies that the owner, through the owner’s inspector to be responsible to verify that all required examinations and testing have been completed and to inspect the piping to the extent necessary to be satisfied that it conforms to all applicable examination requirements of the Code and of the engineering design.  The owner’s inspector shall be designated by the owner and shall be the owner, and employee of the owner, an employee of an engineering or scientific organization, or the employee of a recognized insurance or inspection company acting as the owner’s agent.  The owner’s inspector must be independent from the piping manufacturer, fabricator, or erector unless the owner is also one of these.  This is typically: A professional engineer; AWS Certified Welding Inspector (CWI) or Senior Certified Welding Inspector (SCWI); or an API 570 Piping Inspector; with at least 5years experience in the design, fabrication, or examination of industrial piping systems.  Alternatively, a person with 10 years experience in the design, fabrication, or examination of industrial piping systems may be designated by the owner as the owner’s inspector.  The owner’s inspector has the right to audit any examination, to inspect the piping, to perform examination using any method specified by the engineering design, and to review all certifications and records necessary to satisfy the owner’s responsibility for accepting the work.  

Examinations include Visual (VT) and Radiographic (RT) or Ultrasonic (UT) examinations.  For welded components at least 5% of welds selected at random shall have in-process visual examinations to verify proper preparation of welded surfaces and 100% visual examination of all completed welds.  Additionally, 5% of circumferential butt welds shall be examined by radiography or ultrasonic examination.  For certain autogenous automatic or machine orbital welding, which is fairly typical for high purity applications, weld couponing may be done in lieu of the 5% radiography or ultrasonic examination requirement.  In this case, a sample weld is made from two short sections of tubing of the same diameter, wall thickness, and alloy as the production welding to be made.  The welds are to be made by qualified welding operators using the same qualified Welding Procedure Specification (WPS) and same variables used for production welds.  Each welder is to be examined for each pipe size being welded each day.  At the owner’s discretion, coupons may be cut from actual production welds for each welder and for each pipe size welded.  Coupons are cut to allow direct examination or examined by indirect means.  Coupons are examined for proper alignment, weld penetration, weld bead width variation, weld bead meander, discoloration, and weld defects.  Production welding shall not occur until coupons meet the specified acceptance criteria established by the engineering design, referencing code, or standard.  In some cases, couponing at the end of each shift may also be specified, in which case production welds made may be subject to acceptance or rejection based on the results of the coupon out weld.

Once all welds have been made for a system a leak test is required to ensure tightness.  This is specified as a hydrostatic leak test, but a helium mass spectrometer leak test can be substituted, which is often the case as it is much more sensitive and easier to accomplish on the small-bore piping that is typical in high purity installations.

Ensuring public safety is the ultimate objective of third-party quality testing in construction. The history behind its inception, in the 19th century, was to protect the integrity of construction processes and quality control, observing and evaluating the construction codes being verified. This safety tip feature focuses on the special inspection codes that all pertain to life safety issues. These issues concern themselves with prevention of structure collapse, fire safety, bolt reliability, rebar and welding safety and more, comprising the special inspections in Section 1704 of the International Building Code (IBC) manual. PNL has been providing 3rd party quality inspections since 1994.

The objective of special inspections in construction is to verify that critical elements of a building are constructed according to design specifications and building codes, safeguarding structural integrity and public safety by closely examining materials, installation methods, and connections at key points during construction, particularly where potential risks or complexities exist; this is done to identify and address potential issues before they become major problems, ultimately improving the quality of the built structures.

The International Code Council (ICC) is the organization that develops and maintains the International Building Code (IBC). The ICC is a nonprofit organization that creates model building codes, including the IBC and the International Residential Code (IRC). The ICC is made up of professionals from the building industry, including engineers, architects, firefighters, and builders.

The IBC is used in all 50 US states, and it is a legally enforceable document. IBC stands for the International Building Code, a model building code that establishes minimum requirements for the design and construction of buildings. The IBC has been adopted as a base code standard by most jurisdictions in the United States.

The structure of IBC covers a wide range of topics, including use and occupancy classification, fire and smoke protection, interior finishes, means of egress (exit), accessibility, energy efficiency, structural design, soils and foundations, concrete and electrical.

Chapter 17 of the 2021 International Building Code (IBC) states that "Where application is made to the building official for construction as specified in Section 105, the owner or the owner’s authorized agent, other than the contractor, shall employ one or more approved agencies to provide special inspections and tests during construction on the types of work specified in Section 1705 and identify the approved agencies to the building official. These special inspections and tests are in addition to the inspections by the building official are identified in Section 110." The City of Phoenix and other municipalities have begun enforcing this code in recent years.

PNL is a qualified approved agency accepted by Arizona municipalities and building departments. We have been providing special inspection for over thirty years. The array of testing services we provide covers structural, architectural, and mechanical systems and includes shop fabrication inspection, various forms of steel construction, high strength bolting epoxied anchors, rebar welding, fireproofing, firestopping, piping, mechanical systems, and more.

In tandem with our Safety Tip featuring special inspections, we expand our topic to include a conversation with a special inspector in the field. They face the day-to-day challenges of approving or disapproving structural work in countless settings. PNL is renowned for our commensurate integrity in making pass/fail judgements, which allow or disallow the construction under examination to continue.  General contractors have a fixed production schedule and can be confrontational when an inspection testing report doesn’t meet the standards or codes specified by the owner’s engineer. The 3rd party inspector must be impartial to the client, only focusing on the code integrity of the structure at hand. These underlying challenges can place the inspector in difficult situations.

We are delighted to announce that long-term veteran Kellie Watson has been promoted to the role of PNL General Manager. During Kellie’s twenty-three-year tenure at PNL she has expertly managed the daily operations and scheduling inherent in PNL’s complicated 24/7/365 service schedule. Her organizational planning ensures a seamless client centered approach to onsite quality and technical procedures. Kellie has administered and overseen PNL’s operations, quality, and financial infrastructure with a dedicated team of professionals.

Her success in operational excellence is significantly reflected in our ongoing positive client feedback.  Her contributions to our success have been immeasurable since she joined our team in 2001.