Post etch residue removal: novel dry clean technology using densified fluid cleaning (DFC)

Abstract

A novel dry cleaning technology has been developed by GaSonics, which was successfully applied to post etch residue removal. Densified fluid cleaning (DFC) is a dry source, liquid mode cleaning technology. It is based on application of densified gases at elevated pressures and low temperatures. When used together with microwave downstream plasma treatments, DFC enables the damage-free removal of heavy post etch residues containing Al, Ti or Cu, which are not readily affected by other wafer cleaning methods.