Surface Preparation

Organic hydrocarbons and elemental metals must be oxidized in order to be made soluble for removal from the wafer surface. The zeta potential largely determines nature of electrophoretic motion of a particle in a liquid and how it will interact with other surfaces in the liquid. Particle removal in front-end processing is accomplished principally using SC-1 solutions, often assisted by addition of sonic energy to the solution or specialized jet sprays. Particle removal in dilute solutions with megasonics has been shown to be very efficient, which may be partly due to higher electrical double layer thickness at lower ionic strengths. Particle removal in these dilute solutions with megasonics has been shown to be very efficient, which may be partly due to higher electrical double layer thickness at lower ionic strengths as described. The technique has been used for the study of effects of various wet chemical treatments, such as dilute and buffered hydrofluoric acid solutions, on roughening of silicon surfaces.