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US 2004/0168709 A1Published application
Process control, monitoring and end point detection for semiconductor wafers processed with supercritical fluids
OwnerJames M. Drumm, Brian K. Kirkpatrickinventors
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Abstract
The nature of the fluid in or leaving the CO2 cleaning chamber is monitored by UV or IR spectrophotometry, by laser particle counting, by electrical or thermal conductivity, or other physical or mechanical properties. These properties are used to determine if or when the process is completed or to verify that the process is within normal process operation range.
Claims31
A semiconductor device fabrication apparatus comprising:
- a supercritical fluid media cleaning chamber containing supercritical cleaning media and a semiconductor wafer for removing inorganic contamination from the wafer and
- a detection sensor at the chamber or coupled to the effluent from the chamber that measures a property associated with the surface of semiconductor wafer to determine when the contamination removal is sufficiently complete or to verify that the process is within a normal process operation range.
A method of cleaning a semiconductor wafer comprising the steps of:
- removing inorganic contamination from a layer overlying a substrate using supercritical media in a supercritical cleaning chamber and sensing at the chamber or coupled to the effluent from the chamber a property associated with the surface of semiconductor wafer to determine when the contamination is sufficiently complete or to verify that the process is within a normal process operation range to control the cleaning process.
A method of cleaning a semiconductor wafer comprising the steps of:
- plasma ashing to remove photoresist leaving a residual polymer composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and silicon as well as some of the low K dielectric as well as the etch gasses;
- removing the above and inorganic contamination from a layer overlying a substrate using supercritical media in a supercritical cleaning chamber and sensing at the chamber or coupled to the effluent from the chamber a property associated with the surface of the semiconductor wafer to determine when the contamination removal is sufficiently complete or to verify that the process is within a normal process operation range to control the cleaning process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.