Water motion over a 200-mm diameter wafer surface rotating in a single-wafer wet cleaner was studied, using the water flow visualization technique with a video camera and blue-colored ink as the tracer. When the tracer was injected from the wafer center, it was seen to symmetrically spread over the rotating wafer surface from its center to the edge. The radial velocity of the water showed a negligibly small change over the wafer surface except at its center area. The water layer thickness in the rotation rate range between 500 and 1400 rpm was approximately 0.1 mm; it gradually decreased with the increasing rotation rate. The tracer injected from non-center positions showed that the water flow tended to be localized in the peripheral region of the wafer, particularly at the high rotation rates.The process of fabricating semiconductor silicon microelectronic devices requires a very clean silicon surface. Because various contaminants are present during the device fabrication, they must be removed by cleaning techniques, such as wet cleaning using a single-wafer-type and a batch-type wet cleaner. 1,2 The single-wafer wet cleaner using wafer rotation has various advantages, such as no cross-contamination between the wafers and a small footprint. 1 In order to study and optimize the wet cleaning process condition from the viewpoint of the transport phenomena and the chemical reaction, the fluid flow on and around the rotating wafer surface should be clarified. 3,4 Thus, the water motion and etch rate were studied by many researchers 3,5 based on numerical calculations. For further developing the numerical calculation model, the water motion should be clarified by experiment using a fluid visualization technique.In this study, the typical water motion over a wafer surface rotating in a single-wafer wet cleaner was studied by the flow visualization technique using a blue-colored ink tracer and a video camera. The water velocity and the water layer thickness were evaluated when the water was injected at the wafer center. Additionally, the water motion injected from positions other than the wafer center was studied. Figure 1 shows the single-wafer wet cleaner used in this study. This cleaner uses a 200-mm diameter wafer rotating at the rate of 100-1400 rpm in a cylindrical-shaped vessel. Water was supplied through a tube from the pump, and was injected downward from the water nozzle normal to the wafer surface at the flow rate of 1 l/min. After the injection, the water was transported along the wafer surface from the injected position to the wafer edge, then finally sputtered off from the wafer edge to the outside. ExperimentalIn order to obtain the water motion, the mass transport should be directly visualized and traced. For this purpose, a water-soluble colored ink can be a suitable tracer, because it is perfectly dissolved and transported with the water. Additionally, the ink is harmless and very low cost.At a specified time after starting the water injection for forming a steady state of water flow, 1 cm 3 of the blu...

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A surface chemical reaction model of silicon dioxide film etching by hydrogen fluoride aqueous solution using a single wafer wet etcher was numerically evaluated taking into account the Langmuir-type rate theory and the transport phenomena. The surface reaction process was assumed to consist of three steps, such as (i) hydrogen fluoride adsorption at the silicon dioxide surface, (ii) chemical reaction of silicon dioxide with hydrogen fluoride and (iii) desorption of the by-product from the surface. The rate constants determined by calculation which could reproduce the silicon dioxide etching rate obtained by experiment. The rate limiting step was additionally evaluated.

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