Laser cleaning process for semiconductor material and the like
AssigneeMotorola, Inc.
InventorsDanny L. Thompson, Mary C. Freeman, Ronald N. Legge
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Abstract
A laser cleaning process is disclosed for cleaning the surface of materials, such as semiconductor wafers and the like, which process can be performed at atmospheric pressure. The process includes the steps of providing a structure with a surface having undesirable contaminant particles thereon, wetting the surface with a liquid including reactive or non-reactive liquids, and irradiating the surface using photon energy with sufficient energy to remove the wetting liquid and the undesirable material.
Claims24
A cleaning process for a surface of a semiconductor wafer having undesirable materials thereon, comprising the steps of:
- performing a chemical mechanical polish on the surface of the semiconductor wafer, thereby generating a plurality of contaminant particles on the surface of the semiconductor wafer;
- performing a scrub by applying a liquid to the surface of the semiconductor wafer suspending therein the plurality of contaminant particles, and removing a majority of the liquid and contaminant particles suspended therein;
- removing a majority of the remaining liquid and contaminant particles suspended therein so that only a residual layer of the liquid having a thickness of less than 20 angstroms, and having contaminant particles suspended therein remains on a majority of the wafer surface;
- and
- irradiating the residual layer of liquid with energy to remove the remaining residual layer.
A cleaning process for a surface of a semiconductor wafer having undesirable materials thereon, comprising the steps of:
- performing a chemical mechanical polish on the surface by applying a liquid thereto, thereby generating a plurality of contaminant particles on the surface;
- removing a majority of the liquid having the plurality of contaminant particles chemisorbed therein so that only a residual layer of the liquid having a thickness of less than 20 angstroms remains on the wafer surface;
- and
- irradiating the remaining residual layer of liquid with energy to remove the remaining residual layer.
A laser cleaning process for a surface of a semiconductor wafer having undesirable materials thereon, comprising the steps of:
- performing a chemical mechanical polish on the surface of a semiconductor wafer by applying liquid thereto, thereby generating a plurality of contaminant particles chemisorbed within the liquid;
- removing a majority of the liquid by spinning the wafer in the horizontal plane so that only a residual layer of liquid characterized as a monolayer of molecules adsorbed on the surface and having the plurality of contaminant particles chemisorbed therein remains on the entire wafer surface;
- and
- irradiating the remaining residual layer of liquid with photon energy from the laser to remove the remaining residual layer of liquid and contaminant particles.
A laser cleaning process for a surface of a substrate having undesirable materials thereon, comprising the steps of:
- performing a chemical mechanical polish on the surface of the substrate, thereby generating a plurality of contaminant particles on the surface of the substrate;
- performing a scrub by applying a liquid to the surface of the substrate suspending therein the plurality of contaminant particles, and removing a majority of the liquid and contaminant particles suspended therein;
- removing a majority of the remaining liquid and contaminant particles suspended therein so that only a residual layer of the liquid having a thickness of less than 10 angstroms and having contaminant particles suspended therein remains on a majority of the wafer surface;
- and
- irradiating the residual layer of liquid with photon energy from the laser to remove the remaining residual layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.