Si wafer surface cleaning using laser-induced shock wave: a new dry cleaning methodology

The Fundamental Mechanisms of Laser Cleaning Technology and Its Typical Applications in Industry

“…Around the year 2000, some scholars discovered that laser cleaning technology could effectively remove various particles (such as gold, molybdenum, and silicon) from wafers and thin films [55,56]. Lee et al [57] used laser cleaning to remove the alumina particles from silicon wafers; for this experiment, a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm and a pulse energy of 1.2 J was selected. Images of the wafer surfaces before and after laser cleaning are shown in Figure 9 [57].…”

“…Lee et al [57] used laser cleaning to remove the alumina particles from silicon wafers; for this experiment, a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm and a pulse energy of 1.2 J was selected. Images of the wafer surfaces before and after laser cleaning are shown in Figure 9 [57]. Many particles that were uniformly deposited on the wafer surface were successfully removed by laser cleaning.…”

A study on laser cleaning and pulsed gas tungsten arc welding of Ti–3Al–2.5V alloy tubes

“…In this mechanism there is no direct interaction between the laser and the substrate. Lee et al (2003) has used this method to clean Silicon wafer surface. Oxide layers are generally more adherent to the substrate than particulates.…”

Nanoscale Particles Removal on an Extreme Ultra-Violet Lithography (EUVL) Mask Layer

“…In order to avoid any possible chemical attacks on the mask materials, noble dry cleaning is needed for the EUV mask cleaning. The laser shock wave cleaning (LSC) [3][4][5] has been suggested to remove particles on surfaces effectively without causing any damages on silicon surface. This methodology has unique characteristics, since it does not include direct laser and particle interaction and the speed of cleaning is relatively fast resulting from the large cleaned area due to the large laser spot size [4].…”