SBIR Phase I: Clean Tool: A unified approach to wafer cleaning

SBIR 第一阶段：清洁工具：晶圆清洁的统一方法

• 批准号: 0945041
• 负责人: Hang Ji
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Uncopiers, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-01-01 至 2010-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0945041&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Clean; Tool; unified

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project, will develop a new kind of wafer cleaning tool that will be useful at every cleaning step in semiconductor processing. It will use an environmentally friendly, acoustic technology that uses only clean water and silent sound. The tool will clean a wafer by simultaneously detecting and dislodging the particulates from the wafer using UPW (ultra pure water) until all particulates have been removed. Its novelty is that this will be the first tool incorporating the endpoint determined cleaning. It will then rinse the wafer briefly and dry it in the same tool. In this streamlined sequence, a fully clean wafer will be available for the next process step much more quickly, much more economically, and in much less cleanroom space. Cleaning mechanism relies on constructively controlled acoustic microcavitation precisely brought about at the particle location to dislodge the particle; the cavitation implosion echo is simultaneously detected and cleaning kept track of. This tool will be applicable to all sub-100nm technology nodes. It will be able to detect on-wafer particulates well below 50nm. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project beyond semiconductor application will be in precision cleaning of lithography masks, mems, solar cells, flat panel displays, HDDs, and precision optics. Ultimately, the principle of constructively controlled microcavitation relies on controlling the very fundamental process of phase change, the control of nucleation -- the ability to convert a liquid into a gas in the vicinity of a solid phase. This should have much wider applications in a variety of chemical processing, e.g. in the control of the boiling processes in chemical and nuclear reactors. The study of this acoustically mediated nucleation control could form an active field/area of research and education. Rejected wafers amount to a colossal waste of prime resources including energy, material, and productivity time; it further amounts to environmental degradation through the effluents and scrap generated. The use of clean tool to prevent such wafer loss directly benefits the society at large.

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将开发一种新型的晶圆清洁工具，在半导体加工的每一个清洁步骤都很有用。 它将使用一种环保的声学技术，只使用清洁的水和无声的声音。该工具将通过使用UPW（超纯水）同时检测和去除晶片上的颗粒来清洁晶片，直到所有颗粒都被去除。 它的新奇在于，这将是第一个包含端点确定清洁的工具。 然后，它将冲洗晶片短暂和干燥它在同一工具。在这种简化的顺序中，完全清洁的晶圆将更快、更经济地用于下一个工艺步骤，并且在更少的洁净室空间中。 清洁机制依赖于在颗粒位置精确产生的结构性控制的声学微空化，以去除颗粒;同时检测空化内爆回波并跟踪清洁。 该工具将适用于所有100纳米以下的技术节点。 它将能够检测远低于50 nm的晶圆上颗粒。 该项目在半导体应用之外的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是光刻掩模、光刻胶、太阳能电池、平板显示器、硬盘驱动器和精密光学器件的精密清洁。 最后，建设性地控制微空化的原理依赖于控制相变的非常基本的过程，即成核的控制--在固相附近将液体转化为气体的能力。 这应该在各种化学处理中具有更广泛的应用，例如在化学和核反应堆中的沸腾过程的控制中。 这种声学介导的成核控制的研究可以形成研究和教育的活跃领域/区域。 被拒绝的晶圆相当于对主要资源的巨大浪费，包括能源、材料和生产时间;它通过产生的废水和废料进一步造成环境退化。 使用清洁工具来防止此类晶圆损失直接造福于整个社会。