Investigation of Radial Micro-Bubble Defects Caused by Organic Contamination

IF 2.5 3区工程技术 Q2 ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC

IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing Pub Date : 2026-08-01 Epub Date: 2026-06-12 DOI:10.1109/TSM.2026.3702942

Jaein Jeong;Eun a Ko;Youngjeong Kim

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Abstract

An investigation into the origin and control strategies for a distinct defect characterized by radial wafer maps was conducted during the spin-on hard-mask (SOH), photo resist (PR), and spin-on dielectric (SOD) coating processes. It was found that this defect is closely associated with wafer review or critical dimension (CD) measurements using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) instrument prior to the coating process, and appears in the form of micro-bubbles. To elucidate the formation dynamics, surface contamination analysis, contact angle, thermal desorption, and potential measurements were performed. The results indicated a mechanism for bubble generation resulting from locally inhomogeneous wafer surface hydrophobization caused by carbon-compound-based contamination in a vacuum SEM chamber. The hydrophobization leads to bubble nucleation and air entrapment during the acceleration coating stage. As preventive measures, the organic contamination source has been reduced by cleaning the SEM chamber, and it has also been demonstrated that implementing enhanced double reducing resist consumption (RRC) in the photolithography process is an effective solution.

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有机污染致辐射状微泡缺陷的研究

研究了自旋硬掩膜（SOH）、光刻胶（PR）和自旋介质（SOD）涂层工艺中以径向晶圆图为特征的明显缺陷的成因和控制策略。发现该缺陷与涂层前的晶圆审查或扫描电子显微镜（SEM）测量密切相关，并以微气泡的形式出现。为了阐明地层动力学，进行了表面污染分析、接触角、热解吸和电位测量。研究结果表明，在真空扫描电镜室中，碳基化合物污染导致晶圆表面局部不均匀疏水性导致气泡产生的机制。在加速涂层阶段，疏水作用导致了气泡成核和空气夹持。作为预防措施，通过清洗扫描电镜室减少了有机污染源，并且还证明了在光刻过程中实施增强双重还原抗蚀剂消耗（RRC）是一种有效的解决方案。

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来源期刊

IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing 工程技术-工程：电子与电气

CiteScore

5.20

自引率

11.10%

发文量

101

审稿时长

3.3 months

期刊介绍： The IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing addresses the challenging problems of manufacturing complex microelectronic components, especially very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI). Manufacturing these products requires precision micropatterning, precise control of materials properties, ultraclean work environments, and complex interactions of chemical, physical, electrical and mechanical processes.