CLEANING AFTER SILICON-OXIDE CMP

The cleaning step after oxide CMP has to remove the polishing slurries , the metallic contamination and the dielectric damaged layer. This pa per compares the 2 different strategies which are in competition today : using a scrubber or using conventional wet processes. As there are n o outcropping metals in this case an SC1-based chemistry can be used. Adaptation of this well proven bath can give as good results as an exp ensive scrubbing. In both cases these treatments can be finished by a final metallic contamination removal step.