Challenges of clean/strip processing for Cu/low-k technology

This presentation is an overview of clean/strip processing for low Cu/low-k technology. The paper starts with a brief analysis of dry etch processes that determine the issues in subsequent processes; in the case of porous low-k dielectrics, etch conditions must be carefully optimized to find an optimal balance between the polymer formation and plasma damage of low-k dielectrics. The presentation includes recent results related to dry and wet cleaning, plasma damage, and stability of low-k films. The wet cleaning of solutions using supercritical CO/sub 2/(SCCO/sub 2/)IPA/water mixtures and special surfactants will also be analyzed. Results obtained by different advanced techniques like FTIR, XPS, ellipsometric porosimetry (EP), energy filtered TEM (EFTEM), TOF SIMS etc have been used to characterize the residues, plasma damage and cleaning efficiency and they will be analyzed during the presentation.