Influence of initial wafer cleanliness on metal removal efficiency in immersion SC-1 cleaning: limitation of immersion-type wet cleaning

When contaminated silicon wafers are immersed in an ultra-pure cleaning solution of an NH₄OH/H₂O₂/H ₂O mixture known as the RCA Standard Clean 1 (SC-1), in which the impurity concentration is negligibly low, the level of wafer-surface metallic contamination after the cleaning treatment depends on the amount of metallic impurities brought into the solution by the to-be-cleaned wafers themselves. Even if the chemicals are disposed of after each wafer cleaning, the surface metallic contamination is still dominated by the amount of impurities brought into the fresh solution by the wafers themselves. In the past, purer chemicals have been sought to improve metal removal efficiency, but after reasonably purer chemicals are obtained the efficiency is not governed by the initial chemical purity but by the initial wafer cleanliness. Because of this, scrubbing of dirty wafers-both the backand front-surfaces-before immersion-type wet cleaning is recommended. However, to meet future stricter wafer cleanliness requirements, new cleaning methods in which fresh chemicals are continuously supplied, such as single-wafer spin cleaning, will have to be employed