212th ECS Meeting, Abstract #1024, © The Electrochemical Society Quantitative Measurement of Pattern Collapse Force and Particle Removal Force

The removal of particles from silicon wafers without pattern damage during fabrication process is extremely important for increasing the yield. Various cleaning techniques such as megasonic cleaning, jet spray cleaning, laser shock wave cleaning and so on are introduced to remove particles. However, most of these tools show pattern damage. One of main issues in the development of next generation cleaning process is how to clean wafers without pattern damages. As feature size continues to decrease, pattern can be easily damaged by cleaning itself which means no particle removal on the patterned wafers.. In order to secure effective cleaning process without pattern damages, the pattern collapse and particle removal force should be quantitatively understood and measured. Some groups tried to measure pattern collapse force o