Contamination incident

[Mary Tang]

Dear wbdiff users --

There was an incident this morning where wafers containing silicides and

photoresist were inadvertently cleaned at wbdiff instead of wbsilicide.
The person responsible immediately recognized the mistake, took
responsibility, and is now decontaminating the bench under the
supervision of staff members.  We will be considering retraining on both

stations.  Because of the open-ended nature of doing research it is
impossible to put in fool-proof measures to prevent this kind of
incident from recurring.  And mistakes happen.  Instead, we ask that
everyone be very careful about their processing and respond quickly to
mistakes and accidents.  We are all part of the community:  labmembers
who act conscientiously will always be welcome here.

New qualification procedures will be in effect at these stations:
wbnonmetal, wbdiff, and wbsilicide.  Qualification procedures will be
more standardized and consist of demonstration of knowledge and a
written test.  New operating procedures for these stations will be
posted in the next day or two.

--
Mary X. Tang, Ph.D.
National Nanofabrication Users' Network
Stanford Nanofabrication Facility
CIS Room 136, Mail Code 4070
Stanford, CA  94305
(650)723-9980
mtang at snf.stanford.edu