Pre and post cleaning of mask, wafer, optical surfaces for prevention of contamination prior to and after inspection
AssigneeKLA-Tencor Corporation
InventorGildardo Delgado
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for preventing or minimizing contamination on a critical surface is disclosed. The method and apparatus for preventing or minimizing contamination on the critical surface may be an integrated component of an inspection system, and the cleaning process may be applied prior to the inspection process (may be referred to as pre-cleaning) which may greatly reduce photon-induced contamination. In addition, the cleaning process in accordance with the present disclosure may also be applied upon completion of the inspection process (may be referred to as post-cleaning).
Claims6
An inspection specimen cleaning system, comprising:
- a light source, the light source configured to provide a mixture of photons generated by at least one of:
- an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source, a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light source, a deep ultraviolet (DUV) light source, an ultraviolet (UV) light source, a visible light source or an infrared (IR) light source towards a surface of the inspection specimen;
- and
- a gas source, the gas source configured to provide a mixture of gases that includes at least two of:
- H2, N2, He, Ar, Xe, H2O, 02, 03 or CO2 towards the surface of the inspection specimen;
- wherein the as source is controlled through a processor that executes a set of instructions stored on a processor-readable storage medium, and wherein when the set of instructions is executed, a composition of the mixture of gases is selected to form reactive free radicals in combination with the mixture of photons to dissociate contaminate compounds on the surface of the inspection specimen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.