Study of nano particle stripping and composition inspection on wafer surface

Abstract

Nano-scale particle stripping and inspection on silicon wafer are critical issues for Integrated Circuit(IC) manufacture industry. As more new materials are used in IC manufacture, not only particle itself but also its composition should be inspected. Particles are mainly adhered by the van der waals force. One of potential particle desorption method is laser cleaning which is environment friendly. However, the mechanism of laser cleaning is not clear and more studies should be done for laser ablation. In this paper, the kinetic process of nano particle on silicon wafer induced by nanosecond pulsed laser as well as the on-line detection method of particle composition were studied. A potential method of nano particle dynamic analysis and particle composition inspection were presented. A dual nanosecond pulse laser system both wavelengths at 532 nm is designed in which one laser pumps the particles away from wafer surface almost without damage, the other laser breakdowns the particles in air above the wafer surface to obtain the emission lines of the contaminated particles of 300 nm Cu by a spectroscopy with CCD. Particle motion trail in <i>z</i> direction was observed after laser cleaning by analyzing particle spectral features. The particle dynamic model after stripping was established in which the resistance of air collision and gravity were included. And the model parameters were obtained by calculation using experimental results. The initial velocity of particle at the end of laser pulse and the average acceleration during laser interaction were calculated which were 7.6 m/s and 7.6 × 10<sup>8</sup> m/s<sup>2</sup> respectively. The sensitivity of the dual laser system was evaluated which was between 2.1 × 10<sup>13</sup> to 5.1 × 10<sup>13</sup> atoms/cm<sup>2</sup>. As result, it is found that the gravity of the particle should not be ignored and the velocity divergence between different stripping particles is existed. The study not only provides a methodology for the study of laser-induced removal of nano particles on the wafer surface and laser induced nano particle dynamics, but also provides a potential method for the inspection of particle composition and pollution source monitoring on line in integrated circuit manufacture process. As the results were not the optimum one and further study should be done in which a better laser power density should be used.

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

“…In addition, some researchers investigated the force and the movement behavior of particles during the laser cleaning process. Liu et al [60] investigated the dynamic process of nano copper particles on the surface of silicon wafers in laser irradiation; they obtained the initial velocity of the particles after laser irradiation and the average acceleration of the particles during the laser irradiation period, which provided a theoretical reference for researchers to investigate the mechanisms of particle removal from the surface of silicon wafers.…”