Advanced cryogenic aerosol cleaning: application to damagefree cleaning of sensitive structured wafers

Cryogenic aerosols formed from either argon and nitrogen or nitrogen gas only have proven successful for high particulate removal without material loss or modification and damage free cleaning of poly silicon line structures. Particle removal efficiency is reported on particulate contamination down to 65 nm. Results on 60 nm poly silicon structures have shown no damage and a particle removal efficiency greater than 92%. Further reducing the poly line critical dimension to 40 nm resulted in particle removal efficiency greater than 71% and has no damage