Aqueous cleaning of polymer apply equipment
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsHarbans S. Sachdev, Richard A. Cormack, Gerard V. Capogna, Felice J. Mancaruso, Krishna Sachdev
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Abstract
This invention relates to water-based alkaline cleaning solutions and their use as an environmentally safer replacement of organic solvents to remove photoresist, polyimide residue and other interlevel dielectric polymer coating residue from polymer film apply equipment, specifically, spin coater bowl and assembly parts consisting of a teflon top shield, stainless steel plate, and a bottom teflon spin coating bowl used in semiconductor device fabrication processes.
Claims35
A method for the aqueous cleaning of polymer coating residue on a polymer spin coater bowl assembly having a plurality of material surfaces with at least one teflon surface and one metal surface coated with the said polymer residue, the method comprising the steps of using at least one water based alkaline detergent solution to remove said polymer residue from said polymer spin coater bowl assembly surfaces wherein said water bases alkaline detergent solution comprises at least one alkali metal hydroxide or tetraalkylammonium hydroxide, at least one alkanolamine, at least one combination of a non-ionic surfactant and an amphoteric surfactant, at least one polybasic organic acid or salt of polybasic organic acid, and water.
A method for cleaning a spin coating bowl assembly having a layer of polymer residue coated on at least one teflon surface and one metal surface of said assembly comprising the following steps in the order named:
- providing a water based alkaline detergent solution,
- pre-heating said water based alkaline detergent solution from about 120° F. to about 150° F. in an ultrasonic tank,
- immersing said spin coating bowl and assembly having a layer of polymer residue in said pre-heated detergent solution,
- applying ultrasonic agitation to said pre-heated alkaline detergent solution,
- transporting said spin coating bowl assembly from said ultrasonic tank to a dishwasher unit,
- applying a dishwasher cycle of pre-rinse wash with a dilute alkali and a surfactant solution,
- applying a water rinse cycle by spray wash, and
- drying the cleaned and rinsed spin coating bowl and assembly wherein said water based alkaline detergent solution comprises an alkali-metal hydroxide or tetraalkylammonium hydroxide, an alkanolamine, a polybasic organic acid or a salt of polybasic organic acid, and a combination of surface active agents and where said dilute alkali and surfactant solution for pre-rinse wash comprises between about 0.1 to about 0.3 weight percent of alkali metal hydroxide, tetraalkylammonium hydroxide and combination thereof and about 0.02 to about 0.1 weight percent of surface active agent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.