Surface cleaning mechanisms and future cleaning requirements

With an era of the most challenging cleaning applications in semiconductor manufacturing upon us, there is a need to understand the particle removal mechanisms and understand their advantages and limitations. The effect of decreasing particle size down to the nanoscale and its effect on the practical use of present techniques in the future is discussed. Particles can be removed through the following mechanisms; lifting, sliding and rolling. The removal process may be a combination of two of these mechanisms. Examples of how removal technique works and how a mechanism is identified for non-contact cleaning process is presented Experimental results are presented for megasonic cleaning showing how the cleaning parameters affect the cleaning process.