Methods for the control of contaminants following carbon dioxide cleaning of microelectronic structures

Abstract

A method of cleaning and removing water and entrained solutes during a manufacturing process from a microelectronic device such as a resist-coated semiconductor substrate, a MEM's device, or an optoelectronic device comprising the steps of: (a) providing a partially fabricated integrated circuit, MEM's device, or optoelectronic device having water, entrained solutes, and/or solid particles or the like on the substrate; (b) providing a densified (e.g., liquid or supercritical) carbon dioxide cleaning composition, the drying composition comprising carbon dioxide and, optionally but preferably, a cleaning adjunct; (c) immersing the surface portion in the densified carbon dioxide cleaning composition; and then (d) removing the cleaning composition from the surface portion.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.