LT: Removal of Organic Films and Contaminants from Surfaces Using Elevated Pressure, Elevated Temperature Water

全球半导体市场目前超过一千三百亿美元。 这种技术的持续增长是因为在过去的35年中，微电子器件和集成电路（IC）的复杂性以及由此产生的能力显著增加，而每个IC芯片的成本基本上没有增加。 这些器件的产率和可靠性主要由避免在制造过程中将有害杂质（例如有机污染物、碱金属离子和金属原子/离子）引入器件的能力来确定。 因此，在这一快速变化的技术中的竞争力和市场份额取决于清洁方法。 未来的装置结构和尺寸需要对传统的液体清洁步骤进行修改。 此外，当前清洁技术中使用的溶剂、酸和大量去离子水的处置是重要的环境问题。 拟议的研究重点是开发一种新的表面清洁和调节方法，以确保这一关键制造步骤与制造过程中的真空序列的兼容性。 通过将液态水的压力增加到100 ℃附近，可以保持液体清洗的优点;压力的降低导致水蒸发，允许随后将基板转移到真空室中。 在升高的压力和升高的温度条件下向水中添加CO2增强了水对有机材料的反应性，并因此提供了去除有机以及无机污染物的手段。 此外，这种新的清洗方法最大限度地减少了在IC制造中所需的众多清洗循环中使用的溶剂、酸和去离子水的体积，从而大大减少了IC制造对环境的影响。 将通过X射线光电子能谱（通过从分析系统中的高压反应器原位转移）、原位傅里叶变换红外光谱、电感耦合质谱（ICP-MS）、原子力显微镜和接触角测量，对故意被有机层污染并随后清洁的硅和二氧化硅表面进行化学和物理表征。 这些结果将提供洞察有机污染物的基本清洁机制，使用水与不添加剂。 初步的电气测量，结合ICP-MS，将产生有关这种清洁技术的最终效用的信息。 ***

9727249 Hess The worldwide semiconductor market currently exceeds one hundred thirty billion dollars. Continued growth of this technology has occurred because the complexity and hence the capability of microelectronic devices and integrated circuits (ICs) has increased tremendously over the past 3 5 years with essentially no increase in cost per IC chip. Yield and reliability of these devices are determined primarily by the ability to avoid the incorporation of deleterious impurities such as organic contaminants, alkali ions and metal atoms/ions into the device during fabrication processes. Competitiveness and market share in this rapidly changing technology therefore depend on cleaning methodology. Future device structures and dimensions require modifications to the traditional liquid cleaning steps. In addition, disposal of solvents, acids, and large volumes of de-ionized water used in current cleaning techniques is a significant environmental concern. The proposed research focuses on the development of a novel approach to surface cleaning and conditioning that ensures compatibility of this critical fabrication step with vacuum sequences in the manufacturing process. By increasing the pressure of liquid water in the vicinity of 100C, the advantages of liquid cleaning can be maintained; a reduction in pressure results in water evaporation, permitting subsequent transfer of substrates into a vacuum chamber. The addition of C02 to water under elevated pressure and elevated temperature conditions enhances water reactivity to organic materials, and thus provides a means to remove organic as well as inorganic contaminants. Furthermore, this new cleaning approach minimizes the volumes of solvents, acids, and de-ionized water used in the numerous cleaning cycles required in the fabrication of ICs, thereby reducing greatly the environmental impact of IC manufacture. Chemical and physical characterization of silicon and silicon dioxide surfaces, intentional ly contaminated with organic layers and subsequently cleaned, will be performed by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (via in-situ transfer from the high pressure reactor in the analysis system), in- situ Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Inductively- Coupled Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), atomic force microscopy and contact angle measurements. These results will provide insight into fundamental cleaning mechanisms of organic contaminants using water with and without additives. Preliminary electrical measurements, combined with ICP-MS, will generate information concerning the ultimate utility of this cleaning technique. ***