Sensitive Nanomaterials Detection and Analysis in Solution

摘要

In semiconductor manufacturing, wafers are often exposed to aqueous solutions/liquid chemicals at various stages of the process line. Any contamination of these process liquids could lead to secondary particle contamination of the wafers and/or improper processing leading to lower yields. The maximum tolerable contaminant particle size scales roughly as the half-pitch dimension of a given technology node, which is in turn defined according to the road map of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). When they already reside on the semiconductor surface, there are established approaches that aide in detecting these particles, albeit the revelation of the chemical makeup of the particles requires expensive EDS analysis. The key to high yield is to avoid particles getting onto the wafer in the first place. In conjunction to detecting particles on wafers, particle detection in process liquids can play an important role to impact the yield.