韩国新成E&G接受采访介绍第三代EDM除湿模块开发计划及明年与三星电子联合测试节能洁净室系统

Shinsung E&G plans to complete development of its third-generation Equipment Dehumidify Module (EDM) this year. The company will also work with Samsung Electronics next year to test new systems designed to reduce power consumption.
“Cleanrooms operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and reducing humidity across an entire massive factory requires enormous amounts of energy,” Kim Dong Kwon, executive vice president and head of Shinsung E&G’s Clean Environment Research Center, said in a recent interview at the company’s headquarters in Gwacheon. “Localized environmental control that precisely dehumidifies only the confined spaces inside equipment where wafers are actually exposed is the answer for next-generation semiconductors.”
Kim joined Shinsung E&G after earning a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Sungkyunkwan University in 1997. He has spent nearly 30 years as an engineer focused on cleanroom research and development. When computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was still relatively unfamiliar in South Korea, he was the first to introduce CFD simulation technology within the company. The work laid the foundation for Shinsung E&G’s cleanroom airflow analysis capabilities.
Kim currently heads the Clean Environment Research Center, leading the development of core technologies and equipment for the company’s Clean Environment (ENG) business. In 2021, he earned a doctorate in engineering for research on the adsorption and desorption characteristics of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in honeycomb rotors and their system applications. The research became the foundation for developing Shinsung E&G’s EDM localized environmental control system.
From FFU and EFU to EDM as Semiconductor Processes Advance
Conventional semiconductor fabs have relied on outdoor air conditioners (OACs) and fan filter units (FFUs) for internal air conditioning. OACs perform the first stage of purification, conditioning outside air for use inside semiconductor fabs. Multiple FFUs installed above the cleanroom then perform a second purification stage using high-performance filters and circulate the air downward.
Shinsung E&G became the first South Korean company to localize FFUs in 1991, when Japanese companies dominated the market. The achievement earned the company an IR52 Jang Young-shil Award in 1993, and the product was designated a World-Class Product in 2005. The company currently has more than 60% of the global market, making FFUs one of its main cash cows.
As semiconductor circuit line widths, or nodes, have become smaller, cleanrooms have required higher levels of cleanliness. The problem was cost. Raising the cleanliness grade of an entire cleanroom required massive energy and construction spending. In 2004, Shinsung E&G’s Clean Environment Research Center took a different approach and developed the Equipment Fan Filter Unit (EFU), a smaller version of the FFU. The product creates a localized clean environment only inside equipment where wafers are actually transported and processed.
The EDM integrates an EFU with a dehumidification system. “EDM development began in response to customers’ demands for yield improvements,” Kim said. “As semiconductor processes continued to advance, humidity control inside the EFEM became increasingly important, but conventional EFUs could not adequately address the issue.” In advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes at the nanometer (nm) level, even small amounts of humidity can cause corrosion and circuit defects on wafer surfaces.
The EDM uses a high-performance rotor to precisely control relative humidity inside equipment at an ultra-low level of 5% or less. It is installed in equipment front end modules (EFEMs) or chambers within semiconductor process equipment. Because no separate dehumidification piping is required, it can reduce both the overall equipment volume and cleanroom footprint. Older equipment operating in existing fabs can use the system by attaching it directly to the top of the chamber. EDM shipments reached 100 units this year, two years after supply began.
Third-Generation EDM and AI-Linked Air Conditioning in Development
The company’s current mainstay EDM is its second-generation model. Shinsung E&G plans to complete development of a third-generation product this year. The new model was designed to maximize ease of maintenance based on feedback from semiconductor manufacturing sites. Instead of the existing integrated structure, it is divided into separate dehumidification, fan and control blocks.
The modular structure allows problems with the EDM to be resolved quickly. A faulty block can be easily removed and immediately replaced with a functioning one. There is no need to stop the semiconductor production line and dismantle the equipment, minimizing downtime for inspections and production delays.
The product has also been made smaller. Shinsung E&G redesigned the third-generation EDM so it can be installed inside advanced process equipment where available space is limited. The company has also completed technical preparations to add an electrostatic control, or ionizer, block depending on customer requirements.
Shinsung E&G is also upgrading its FFUs. One product under development is a pressure-linked FFU equipped with two pressure sensors. It can collect and analyze real-time data on actual FFU airflow velocity and static pressure across the entire cleanroom. The data will be used to train AI models, with the goal of enabling AI to integrate and optimally control a factory’s entire air-conditioning system.
“The cleanroom market will ultimately be led by companies that can provide comprehensive air-conditioning solutions rather than individual pieces of equipment,” Kim said. “Shinsung E&G sees the direction of the market as an ‘autonomous cleanroom’ using wireless sensors and AI.” The company is proposing the technology to customers with small and medium-sized cleanrooms that have difficulty building their own infrastructure.
Next-Generation Systems to Be Tested at Samsung Electronics
Shinsung E&G is also carrying out a government-funded project to improve the energy efficiency of cleanroom air-conditioning equipment, with Kim serving as the principal researcher. The goal is to build an integrated system that cuts FFU power consumption by more than 20% per unit and reduces overall OAC operating energy by 15% compared with existing systems. A compact design will also be applied, reducing the footprint of large air-conditioning equipment by 20%.
The next-generation high-efficiency air-conditioning systems will begin testing at a Samsung Electronics semiconductor mass-production line next year. They will be installed in the cleanroom’s lower level, or sub-fab, and undergo more than 5,000 hours of performance evaluation over one year.
An intelligent control system will also be introduced. AI will process real-time data on factory temperature, humidity, fine particles and static pressure and provide customized air conditioning to areas where it is needed.
“Customers will only accept the technology when energy savings are demonstrated at actual manufacturing sites, rather than through laboratory figures,” Kim said. “Starting with our 50th anniversary next year, we aim to transform from a simple equipment supplier into a technology company responsible for both industrial productivity and energy efficiency.”