• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2000.05a
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• pp.743-746
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• 2000

The removal of contaminants of silicon wafers has been investigated by various methods. Laser cleaning is the new dry cleaning technique to replace wafer wet cleaning in the near future. A dry laser cleaning uses inert gas jet to remove contaminant particles lifted off by the action of a KrF excimer laser. A laser cleaning model is developed to simulate the cleaning process and analyze the influence of contaminant particles and experimental parameters on laser cleaning efficiency. The model demonstrates that various types of submicrometer-sized particles from the front sides of silicon wafer can be efficiently removed by laser cleaning. The laser cleaning is explained by a particle adhesion model. including van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonding, and a particle removal model involving rapid thermal expansion of the substrate due to the thermoelastic effect. In addition, the experiment of wafer laser cleaning using KrF excimer laser was conducted to remove various contaminant particles.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.109-115
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• 2008

The cleaning process of contaminant particles adhering to the microchips, integrated circuits (ICs) or the like is essential in modern microelectronics industry. In the cleaning process particularly working with the application of inert gases, the removal of contaminant particles of submicron scale is very difficult because the particles are prone to reside inside the boundary layer of the working fluid, The use of cryogenic $CO_2$ cleaning method is increasing rapidly as an alternative to solve this problem. In contrast to the merits of high efficiency of this process in the removal of minute particles compared to the others, even fundamental parametric studies for the optimal process design in this cleaning process are hardly done up to date, In this study, we attempted to measure the cleaning efficiency with the variations of some principal parameters such as mass flow rate, injection distance and angle, and tried to draw out optimal cleaning conditions by measuring and evaluating an effective cleaning width called $d_{50}$.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.39-45
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• 2001

This paper introduces a cleaning process for removing submicron-sized particles from NiP hard disk substrates by the liquid-assisted laser cleaning technique. Measurements of cleaning Performance and time-resolved optical diagnostics are Performed to analyze the physical mechanism of contaminant removal. The results reveal that nanosecond laser pulses are effective for removing the contaminants regardless of the wavelength and that a thermal mechanism involving explosive vaporization of liquid dominates the cleaning process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Laser Processing Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.23-26
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• 2000

This paper introduces a cleaning process for removing submicron-sized particles from NiP hard disk substrates by the liquid-assisted laser cleaning technique. Measurements of cleaning performance and time-resolved optical diagnostics are performed to analyze the physical mechanism of contaminant removal. The results reveal that nanosecond laser pulses are effective for removing the contaminants regardless of the wavelength and that a thermal mechanism involving explosive vaporization of liquid dominates the cleaning process.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.66-71
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• 2023

This paper describes a hybrid cleaning method of silicon wafer combining nano-bubble and ultrasound to remove sub-micron particles and contaminants with minimal damage to the wafer surface. In the megasonic cleaning process of semiconductor manufacturing, the cavitation induced by ultrasound can oscillate and collapse violently often with re-entrant jet formation leading to surface damage. The smaller size of cavitation bubbles leads to more stable oscillations with more thermal and viscous damping, thus to less erosive surface cleaning. In this study, ultrasonic energy was applied to the wafer surface in the DI water to excite nano-bubbles at resonance to remove contaminant particles from the surface. A patented nano-bubble generator was developed for the generation of nano-bubbles with concentration of 1×10⁹ bubbles/ml and nominal nano-bubble diameter of 150 nm. Ultrasonic nano-bubble technology improved a contaminant removal efficiency more than 97% for artificial nano-sized particles of alumina and Latex with significant reduction in cleaning time without damage to the wafer surface.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.609-610
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• 2009

• Laser Solutions
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.17-25
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• 2009

The surface cleaning method based on the laser-induced breakdown (LIB) of gas and subsequent plasma and shock wave generation can remove small particles from solid surfaces. In the laser shock cleaning (LSC) process, a high-power laser pulse induces optical breakdown of the ambient gas above the solid surface covered with contaminant particles. The subsequently created shock wave followed by a high-speed flow stream detaches the particles. In this work, a novel surface cleaning process using laser-induced breakdown of liquid is introduced and demonstrated. LIB of a micro liquid jet increases the shock wave intensity and thus removes smaller particle than the conventional LSC method. Experiments demonstrate that the cleaning force and cleaning efficiency are also increased significantly by this method.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.263-282
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• 2016

Contaminant transport in groundwater induces major threat and harmful effect on the environment; hence, the fate of the contaminant migration in groundwater is seeking a lot of attention. In this paper a two dimensional numerical flow and transport model through saturated layered soil is developed. Groundwater flow and solute transport has been simulated numerically using proposed model. The model implements the finite volume time splitting method to discretize the main equations. The performance, accuracy and efficiency of the out coming numerical models have been successfully examined by two test cases. The verification test cases consist of two-dimensional, groundwater flow and solute transport. The final purpose of this paper is to discuss and compare the shape of contaminant plume in homogeneous and heterogeneous media with different soil properties and control of solute transport using a zone for minimizing the potential of groundwater contamination; furthermore, this model leads to select the effective and optimum remedial strategies for cleaning the contaminated aquifers.

• 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.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 1997

The UV/O$_{3}$ dry cleaning has been well known in removing organic molecules. The UV/O$_{3}$ dry cleaning method was performed to clean the Si wafer surfaces and contact holes contaminated by organic molecules such as residual PR. During the cleaning process, the Si surfaces were analyzed with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscope (AFM) and ellipsometer. When the UV/O$_{3}$ dry cleaning at 200'C was performed for 3 minutes, the residual photoresist was almost removed on Si wafer surfaces, but Si surfaces were oxidized. For UV/O$_{3}$ application of contact hole cleaning, the contact string were formed using the equipment of ISRC (Inter-university Semiconductor Research Center). Before Al deposition, UV/O$_{3}$ (at 200.deg. C) dry cleaning was performed for 3 minutes. After metal annealing, the specific contact resistivity was measured. Because UV/O$_{3}$ dry cleaning removed organic contaminants in contact holes, the specific contact resistivity decreased. Each contact hole size was different, but the specific contact resistivities were all much the same. Thus, it is expected that the UV/O$_{3}$ dry cleaning method will be useful method of removal of the organic contaminants at smaller contact hole cleaning.