Investing Now to Grow With You In The Future
For more than 90 years, CUNO has developed innovative filtration and purification products by partnering with our customers to solve their critical contamination problems. This partnership allows CUNO to evaluate future trends and technology requirements early in the process allowing us to deliver customized new products when you need them. This rapid delivery of new products is accomplished by utilizing a phase-gated product life cycle management process. Furthermore, CUNO maintains its technology leadership position by investing heavily in research and development year after year. With over 200 patents worldwide, CUNO offers some of the most advanced and novel products available to the semiconductor and electronics industries.
Enabling Semiconductor and Electronics Processes
CUNO is an industry leader with a wide breadth of products, advanced manufacturing capabilities, global infrastructure, technical expertise, and customer support. CUNO has delivered innovative solutions that meet the needs of our customers, while continuously developing better ways to protect their manufacturing process from contamination. Identification of niche markets and development of novel specialty applications are principal to maintaining and expanding market share. CUNO technology is used for a wide range of applications, from DI Water to Photoresist to Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP). Recent new products include PhotoSHIELD™ Nylon Filter Cartridges and Capsules for photoresist and ancillary chemicals applications, and OPTIMA™ Filter Cartridges and Capsules for CMP applications. CUNO filtration and purification systems are the preferred choice for DI water applications where critical cleaning of wafers, integrated circuits, video displays, and data storage devices is essential. Photoresists, wet etch chemicals, and anti-reflective coatings are some of the most expensive materials used to manufacture electronics components. These chemicals demand the ultimate in purity and quality and for that reason CUNO filters and purifiers are the products of choice in fabs worldwide. CUNO has maintained its leadership in fluid filtration and purification by continually providing superior products and technical support. Our filtration and purification systems are designed and manufactured to the most stringent standards assuring repeatable and reliable performance in your application.
CUNO TECHNOLOGY
CUNO has developed many innovative design and manufacturing technologies. All address the filtration customer's current and future needs, while many have direct application in the semiconductor and electronics industries. These include:
- Advanced Pleat Technology™ (APT) manufacturing
- FlexN™ Multi-Zone Membrane
- Zeta Plus® Purifiers
- Charge Modified Membranes
Advanced Pleat Technology Manufacturing
Normally a small amount of gel particles can be found in photoresists and chemicals. Their removal from photoresists and chemicals is highly dependent on differential pressure across the filtration system. Since these gels are deformable, they can extrude through a filter at high differential pressures. At low differential pressures, the forces that would deform gels are correspondingly lower and the gels are retained by the membrane media. CUNO has been able to maximize filtration surface area, which ensures both a low inlet pressure to the pump, and low differential pressure, which is optimal for gel removal. The increase in filtration surface area is achieved by using Advanced Pleat Technology. The service life of a pleated filter cartridge is often dictated by the accessible surface area. Conventional pleated filters may offer a large gross surface area, but when the media is packed into the cartridge, only part of the surface area is used, resulting in both flow restrictions and limited contaminant holding capacity. The "blind" or unused area commonly occurs near the inside diameter where the pleats are most tightly compressed. An APT cartridge filter is manufactured using a staggered and stepped configuration, which reduces open space between the outside pleats. This novel technology maximizes capacity by increasing the open area which allows for greater particle loading at the inside diameter, while the shorter stepped pleats take advantage of existing open space closer to the outside diameter of the cartridge. The result is a fully used surface area that provides superior life.
FlexN™ Multi-Zone Membrane
 FlexN membrane creates a multi-zone membrane that consists of an "open" zone on the upstream side of the membrane and a "tighter" zone on the downstream side. In effect, the open zone acts as a pre-filter by capturing large particles while the tighter zone provides the retention of smaller contaminants. As shown in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) photograph (left), the multi-zone structure eliminates a dual-layer membrane construction providing larger surface area, significantly increased contaminant holding capacity, longer service life, and lower pressure drop.
Zeta Plus® Trace Metal Purifiers
Ion Exchange Columns are commonly used to reduce trace metal or ionic contaminants from photoresists, solvents and ancillary chemicals. While this technology is effective at reducing trace metal and ionic contaminants it lacks the throughput that material suppliers and semiconductor processes require. It is well understood that a fluid will take the path of least resistance and that Ion Exchange Columns contain spaces or voids between resin beads. For this reason, a low flow rate is needed to assure contact between the fluid and resin beads for maximum removal of metallic or ionic contaminants.
CUNO has developed a purifier that is capable of removing metallic or ionic contaminants from photoresists, solvents, and ancillary chemicals while not sacrificing flow and improving throughput. Zeta Plus Purifiers contain multiple high capacity ion exchange technologies that reduce trace metals such as Na, Fe, K, and Ca to single digit parts per billion levels in single pass or recirculation mode applications. Unlike competitive purifiers that only contain ion exchange technologies on the surface of the media, Zeta Plus Purifiers are able to purify ionic contaminants throughout the entire depth of the media. This novel design provides a more efficient means of purification per surface area while delivering superior flow characteristics and a lower cost-of-ownership.
Charge Modified Membranes
CUNO was one of the first companies to offer a charge-modified nylon 6,6 membrane for filtration of DI Water. Our patented charged-modified nylon 6,6 membrane provides superior particle removal as compared to traditional mechanical sieving (pore size) filters.
The SEM photograph (left) shows an Electropor charge-modified nylon 6,6 membrane with captured 0.021 micron mono-dispersed latex beads. The combination of Electrokinetic adsorption (positive charge) and mechanical sieving (pore size) provides for enhanced particle removal capability of submicron contaminants like colloidal silica and bacteria fragments.
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