US 6,500,268 B1Granted

Dry cleaning method

AssigneeSilicon Genesis Corporation

InventorFrancois J. Henley

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A method for cleaning objects (e.g., wafers, integrated circuits, photonic devices, opto-electronic devices, piezoelectronic devices, microelectromechanical systems (“MEMS”), sensors, actuators, solar cells, flat panel displays (e.g., LCD, AMLCD), biological and biomedical devices) of particles (e.g., particulate contamination) that attach themselves to surfaces of the objects. The method includes applying a high energy laser source on a surface of a substrate to release one or more particles from the surface of the substrate while maintaining the substrate in a vacuum environment; and applying an electrostatic source directed to the substrate to attract the released one or more particles from the substrate to remove the one or more particles from the surface of the substrate. The method also removes the substrate from the vacuum environment.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A method of cleaning objects in the chamber from particles, that attach themselves to surfaces of the objects, comprising:

inserting a substrate into a chamber;
applying a high energy photon from a light source on a surface of the substrate to release one or more particles from the surface of the substrate while maintaining the substrate in a vacuum environment of the chamber;
applying an electrostatic force from an electrode directed to the substrate to attract the released one or more particles from the substrate to remove the one or more particles from the surface of the substrate;
removing the substrate from the chamber;
repeating the steps of applying the high energy photon from the electromagnetic energy source, applying the electrostatic force from the electrode and removing the substrate;
inserting a collector substrate into the chamber;
applying a high energy photon from the light source on the electrode to release one or more particles from the surface of the electrode while maintaining the electrode in the vacuum environment of the chamber;
applying an electrostatic force from the electrode directed to the collector substrate to attract the released one or more particles from the electrode to the collector substrate to remove the one or more particles from the surface of the electrode to clean the electrode from the particles;
and
removing the collector substrate from the chamber.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.