The Future of Wafer Cleaning Requires Innovation

摘要

Until recently, a small amount of film loss caused by wafer cleaning could be tolerated with no adverse impact on the device, and the clean process goal was to remove all unwanted material. Today, wafer cleaning can directly impact device performance through CD changes and film modification, and an added objective for clean is to minimize and control these changes. Selectivity issues are an increasing concern due to scaling and sensitive new materials, especially for logic manufacturers; for memory chipmakers, collapse of high-aspect-ratio structures is of further concern. These challenges, along with continued reduction of edge exclusion and productivity demands, are driving the need for wafer cleaning innovation.