Systems and Methods for Treating Substrates with Cryogenic Fluid Mixtures
AssigneeTel Fsi, Inc.
InventorsJeffery W. Butterbaugh, Chimaobi W. Mbanaso
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for treating the surface of a microelectronic substrate, using a cryogenic fluid mixture used to treat an exposed surface of the microelectronic substrate. The fluid mixture may be expanded through a nozzle to form an aerosol spray or gas cluster jet (GCJ) spray may impinge the microelectronic substrate and remove particles from the microelectronic substrate's surface. The system may include a two-stage gas nozzle that expands the high pressure incoming gas within two inline expansion chambers. However, in other embodiments, the system may include a single stage nozzle design with one expansion component.
Claims20
A substrate cleaning system, comprising:
- a vacuum process chamber comprising a substrate holder for a microelectronic substrate;
- a fluid delivery system that can provide a fluid mixture to the process chamber;
- a fluid expansion component disposed between the process chamber and the fluid delivery system, the fluid expansion component comprising:
- an inlet orifice;
- an outlet orifice;
- a first expansion region disposed between the inlet orifice and the outlet orifice;
- and
- a second expansion region disposed between the first expansion region and the outlet orifice, the second expansion region comprising a cross-sectional geometry that is different from the first expansion region;
- a fluid temperature control system disposed between the fluid delivery system and the fluid expansion component.
A substrate processing system, comprising:
- a vacuum process chamber comprising a substrate holder for a microelectronic substrate;
- a fluid control system that can provide a fluid mixture to the process chamber;
- a fluid expansion component disposed between the process chamber and the fluid control system, the fluid expansion component comprising:
- a nozzle diameter ratio comprising a value greater than 1 and less than or equal to 8, the nozzle diameter ratio comprising an outlet diameter component is divided by an inlet diameter, and
- a half angle less than 10°;
- a fluid temperature control system to cool the fluid mixture prior to flowing through the fluid expansion component;
- and
- a pressure control system to control pressure within the vacuum process chamber.
A fluid expansion device, comprising:
- an inlet orifice;
- an outlet orifice;
- a first expansion region disposed between the inlet orifice and the outlet orifice wherein the first expansion region comprises a cylindrical shape;
- and
- a second expansion region disposed between the first expansion region and the outlet orifice, the second expansion region comprising a conical shape comprising an inlet diameter that is equal to or less than a diameter of the first expansion region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.