REMOVAL OF SILICA PARTICLES FROM SILICON SUBSTRATES USING MEGASONIC CLEANING

Non-contact surface cleaning is a desirable process in many surface cl eaning applications in the semiconductor, hard disk, and nat panel dis play industries. The effects of power, temperature, and time on the re moval efficiency of silica particles from silicon wafers are presented . Results show that removal efficiencies near 100% could be achieved u sing deionized water and SC1 under the right conditions. Megasonic pow er exerts a greater influence on particle removal efficiency than does temperature, both in water and in SC1 solution. Particle removal effi ciency decreases when the ammonia content is decreased slightly from t he 5:1:1 ratio, but increases again as ammonia content is further decr eased. The efficiency then remains high, even for R as low as 0.01.