• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.1-6
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• 2003

In the rapid changes of the semiconductor manufacturing technologies for early 21st century, it may be safely said that a kernel of terms is the size increase of Si wafer and the size decrease of semiconductor devices. As the size of Si wafers increases and semiconductor device is miniaturized, the units of cleaning processes increase. A present cleaning technology is based upon RCA cleaning which consumes vast chemicals and ultra pure water (UPW) and is the high temperature process. Therefore, this technology gives rise to environmental issue. To resolve this matter, candidates of advanced cleaning processes have been studied. One of them is to apply the electrolyzed water. In this work, electrolyzed water cleaning was compared with various chemical cleaning, using Si wafer surfaces by changing cleaning temperature and cleaning time, and especially, concentrating upon the contact angle. It was observed that contact angle on surface treated with Electrolyzed water cleaning was $4.4^{\circ}$ without RCA cleaning. Amine series additive of high pKa (negative logarithm of the acidity constant) was used to observe the property changes of cathode water.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.7-11
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• 2012

Among various wet cleaning methods, megasonic and jet spray gained their popularity in single wafer cleaning process for the efficient removal of particulate contaminants from the wafer surface. In the present study, we evaluated these two cleaning methods for particle removal efficiency (PRE) and pattern damage on the aluminum layered wafer surface. Also the effect of $CO_2$ dissolved water in jet spray cleaning is assessed by measuring PRE. It is observed that the jet spray cleaning process is more effective in terms of PRE and pattern damage compared to megasonic cleaning and the mixing of $CO_2$ in the water during jet sprays further increases the PRE. We believe that the outcome of the present study is useful for the semiconductor cleaning process engineers and researchers.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.17-23
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• 2023

In semiconductor manufacturing processes, a cleaning process is important that can remove sub-micron particles. Conventional wet cleaning methods using chemical have limits in removing nano-particles. Thus, physical forces of a mechanical vibration up to 1 MHz frequency, was tried to aid in detaching them from the substrates. In this article, we developed a 1 MHz quartz megasonic for a bare wafer cleaning using finite element analysis. At first, a 1 MHz megasonic prototype was manufactured. Using the results, a main product which can improve a particle removal performance, was analyzed and designed. The maximum impedance frequency was 992 kHz, which agreed well with the experimental value of 986 kHz (0.6% error). Acoustic pressure distributions were measured, and the result showed that maximum / average was 400.0~432.4%, and standard deviation / average was 46.4~47.3%. Finally, submicron particles were deposited and cleaned for the assessment of the system performance. As a result, the particle removal efficiency (PRE) was proved to be 92% with 11 W power. Reflecting these results, the developed product might be used in the semiconductor cleaning process.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.72-75
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• 2023

Carbon neutrality has been emerged as important mission for all the manufacturing industry to reduce energy usage and carbon emission equivalent. Korean semiconductor and display manufacturing industries are also in huge interest by minimize the energy usage as well as to find a less global warming product gases in both etch and cleaning. In addition, Korean government is also investing long term research and development plan for the safe environment in various ways. In this paper, we revisit previous research activities on carbon emission equivalent and current research activities performed in semiconductor process diagnosis research center at Myongji University with respect to the reduction of NF3 usage for the PECVD chamber cleaning, and we present the analytical result of the exhaust gas with residual gas analysis in both 6 inches and 12 inches PECVD equipment. The presented result can be a reference study of the development of new substitution gas in near future to compare the cleaning rate of the silicon oxide deposition chamber.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.34-42
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• 2021

Recent cleaning technologies of mask in extremely ultraviolet semiconductor processes were reviewed, focused on newly developed issues such as particle size determination or hydrocarbon and tin contaminations. In detail, critical particle size was defined and proposed for mask cleaning where nanosized particles and its various shapes would result in surface atomic ratio increase vigorously. A new cleaning model also was proposed with amphoteric behavior of electrolytically ionized water which had already shown excellent particle removing efficiency. Having its non-equilibrium and amphoteric properties, electrolyzed ion water seemed to oxidize contaminant surface selectively in nano-scale and then to lift up oxidized ones from mask surface very effectively. This assumption should be further investigated in future in junction with hydrogen bonding and cluster of water molecules.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society Of Semiconductor Equipment Technology
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.117-119
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• 2002

A semiconductor cleaning technology has been based upon RCA cleaning which consumes vast amounts of chemicals and ultra pure water. This technology hence gives rise to many environmental issues, and some alternatives such as electrolyzed water are being studied. In this work, intentionally contaminated Si wafers were cleaned using the electrolyzed water. The electrolyzed waters were obtained in anode and cathode with oxidation reduction potentials and pH of -1050mV and 4.8, and -750mV and 10.0, respectively. The electrolyzed water deterioration was correlated with $CO_2$ concentration changes dissolved from air. Overflowing of electrolyzed water during cleaning particles resulted in the same cleanness as could be obtained with RCA clean. The roughness of patterned wafer surfaces after EW clean maintained that of as-received wafers. RCA clean consumed about $9\ell$ chemicals, while electrolyzed water clean did only $400m\ell$ HCl or $600m\ell$ $NH_4$Cl to clean 8" wafers in this study. It was hence concluded that electrolyzed water cleaning technology would be very effective for releasing environment, safety, and health(ESH) issues in the next generation semiconductor manufacturing.ring.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.49-52
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• 2007

As the minimum feature size decrease, control of contamination by nanoparticles is getting more attention in semiconductor process. Cleaning technology which removes nanoparticles is essential to increase yield. A reference wafer on which particles with known size and number are deposited is needed to evaluate the cleaning process. We simulated particle trajectories in the chamber by using FLUENT. Charged monodisperse particles are generated using SMPS (Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer) and deposited on the wafer by electrostatic force. The Experimental results agreed with the simulation results well. We calculate the particles loss in pipe flow theoretically and compare with the experimental results.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1838-1840
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• 2003

• Proceedings of the Korean Society Of Semiconductor Equipment Technology
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.174-178
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• 2007

The cleaning process to remove small particles, ions, and other polluted sources is one of the major parts in the recent semiconductor industry because it can cause fatal errors on the quality of the final products. According to the other reports, the major factors of bath's fluid motion are the cleaning method, nozzle, the geometry (of bath, guide and wafer), and the position (of guide and wafer). So to enhance cleaning efficiency in the bath, these factors must be controlled. The purpose of this study is to analyze and visualize fluid motion in the cleaning bath as basic data for designing the nozzle system and finding the process control parameters. For that, we used the general CFD code FLUENT.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.139-144
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• 2011

CMP process is an essential element in the semiconductor product processes in Chemical Mechanical Polishing. Taken as a whole, CMP is one process, but concretely, it is a detail process which consists of polishing, cleaning, and so on. Especially, the polishing and cleaning are key points in the whole process. Polishing rate is the most important factor and is related with deposition of slurry in the polishing process. Each outlet velocities is the most important factors in cleaning process. And when the velocities are more uniform, the cleaning becomes more effective. In this research, based on these factors, we performed a numerical analysis for effective polishing and cleaning which can be applied to industrial field. Consequently, we figured out that more than one opened nozzle is more effective than one opened nozzle at the polishing pad in case of this research. And we confirmed that the revised models have the uniform velocity distribution more than the previous model of the cleaning nozzle.