Evolution of Silicon Cleaning Technology Over the Last Twenty Years J. Ruzyllo 1 , T. Hattori 2 , R.E. Novak 3 , P. Mertens 4 , and P. Besson 5 1 Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Penn State Univ., University Park, PA 16802, USA 2 Hattori Consulting., Chigasaki 253-0061 , Japan, 3 Akrion, Inc. ,Allentown, PA 18106, USA 4 IMEC, Leuven B-3001, Belgium, 5 STM/LETI, Grenoble, France. This paper briefly summarizes selected developments that were marking progress in silicon cleaning technology over the last twenty years. The occasion for this review is a 10th International Symposium on Cleaning and Surface Conditioning Technology in Semiconductor Device Manufacturing organized under the auspices of the Electrochemical Society. This review considers general trends underlying the progress in cleaning technology, specific developments in the area of removal of various types of contaminants, as well as cleaning metrology. The concluding observation from this review is that the wafer cleaning technology is keeping up with increasing needs through continuous progress in all its facets. This progress will need to continue if the challenges resulting from increased complexity of device structures, new materials used, and the need to address environmental concerns are to be resolved. Introduction The wafer cleaning is a single most frequently applied processing step in advanced IC manufacturing. Its role in the overall sequence and impact on the manufacturing yield was growing as device geometries were getting tighter and quality of silicon wafers was improving, thus, reducing the impact of bulk defects. Eventually, the silicon cleaning technology has developed into a self-contained important technical domain which, in order to grow, required a solid scientific foundation. The First International Symposium on Cleaning and Surface Conditioning Technology in Semiconductor Device Manufacturing was held in 1989. It was the very first topical symposium devoted entirely to the problems of surface cleaning and contamination control in semiconductor manufacturing. It was organized almost exactly twenty years after the first paper proposing a complete scientifically based cleaning sequence of silicon surfaces (RCA clean) was published [1]. The extent to which semiconductor industry transformed itself since then is underscored by the two orders of magnitude reduced device geometry and close to an order of magnitude increased wafer area. In terms of cleaning technology these two figures mean a perpetual challenge to effectively clean continuously decreasing geometries over the continuously increasing area. On the occasion of the 10 th anniversary of the “ECS Cleaning Symposia” this overview attempts to briefly summarize key trends and developments in silicon cleaning ECS Transactions, 11 (2) 3-7 (2007) 10.1149/1.2779356 ©The Electrochemical Society 3 ) unless CC License in place (see abstract). ecsdl.org/site/terms_use address. Redistribution subject to ECS terms of use (see 207.241.231.83 Downloaded on 2018-07-21 to IP