Development of a novel advanced spray technology based on investigation of droplet energy and pattern damage

摘要

A novel advanced spray technology, in which droplet size and velocity are accurately and tightly controlled, has been developed to realize the damage-free cleaning for next generation device manufacturing. The influence of droplet characteristics on pattern collapse/damage was quantitatively investigated using this technology. It was shown that the amount of damage was correlated to the droplet energy density on the wafer. The mechanism of pattern damage generated by the conventional dual fluid spray was revealed by the damage threshold curve, which was obtained from the theoretical consideration. Finally higher particle removal efficiency without any pattern damage was achieved by controlling the distribution of effective droplets for cleaning.