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AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsEmanuel I. Cooper, Scott A. Estes, Glenn W. Gale, Rangarajan Jagannathan, Harald F. Okorn-Schmidt, David L. Rath
Estimating the term…
A method is provided for treating a plurality of semiconductor substrates using the same aqueous SC-1 solution which solution removes and/or inhibits contamination of the semiconductor surfaces by metallic ions present in the solution or on the substrate surface comprising a basic solution containing hydrogen peroxide and an oxidation-resistant chelating additive such as CDTA in an amount effective to provide the desired treatment results. The SC-1 solution may be the conventional 5:1:1 (water:NH.sub.4 OH:H.sub.2 O.sub.2) solution or a dilute solution such as a 5:x:1 to 200:x:1 solution wherein x is 0.025 to 2.
A method for treating a plurality of batches of semiconductor substrate surfaces with the same cleaning solution to clean the surfaces while removing and/or inhibiting metallic contamination of the treated surface with the method comprising contacting a plurality of batches of the semiconductor substrate surfaces with an aqueous solution comprising an organic or inorganic base, hydrogen peroxide and 1,2-cyclohexane diaminetetraacetic acid in an amount greater than about 1 ppb to about 1,000 ppm.
An aqueous solution for treating a plurality of batches of semiconductor substrate surfaces comprising an organic or inorganic base, hydrogen peroxide and 1,2-cyclohexanediaminetetraacetic acid as an additive in an amount greater than 1 ppm to 1,000 ppm to remove and/or inhibit contamination of the semiconductor surface by metallic ions present in the treating solution or on the semiconductor substrate surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
Cleaning before device manufacture, i.e. Begin-Of-Line process: by wet cleaning only
Organic or inorganic per-compounds: liquid compositions
Water-soluble compounds: hydroxides
Containing nitrogen: aminoacids
Term ended 28 Oct 2017 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cleaning (treating) semiconductor substrate surfaces during the electronic component fabrication process and, in particular, to a method for cleaning the substrate surfaces during a fabrication process in which a plurality of substrates are cleaned using basic aqueous solutions of hydrogen peroxide containing specially defined complexing agents which solutions remove organic and particulate matter from the substrate surfaces and/or inhibit metal contamination of the substrate surface from the cleaning solution during the fabrication process.
2. Description of Related Art
The stability of complexants in an SC-1 treatment solution was tested by their effectiveness at suppressing H.sub.2 O.sub.2 decomposition by measuring the concentration of hydrogen peroxide remaining in a heated (65.degree. C.) 20:0.5:1 SC-1 solution after 10 hours. The SC-1 solutions were pre-contaminated with Al, Ca, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Ti and Zn all with concentrations about 1 ppb. The initial concentration of peroxide was 0.44 M.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ % H.sub.2 O.sub.2 RUN COMPLEXANT (PPM) H.sub.2 O.sub.2 (M) REMAINING ______________________________________ 1 CDTA (20) 0.48 109 2 CDTA (10) 0.47 107 A NONE 0.09 20 B EDTMP (20) 0.39 89 C EDTMP (25) 0.40 91 D EDTA (20) 0.10 23 E EDTA (17) 0.10 23 ______________________________________
The reason for a higher hydrogen peroxide concentration in Runs 1 and 2 compared to the initial concentration, is due to evaporation of the other solution components such as water and ammonia. All the other runs would otherwise be comparative. EDTMP is ethylenediamine tetra (methylenephosphonic) acid and EDTA is ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid.