SBIR Phase I: Saving post-CMP Wafers using ACIM

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to save semiconductor wafers from being deeply scratched by unchecked large errant particles in chemical mechanical planarizing or polishing (CMP) slurries. CMP has become the method of choice for restoring the surface trueness of wafers at all stages of its manufacture. No method currently exists that can implement a CMP-safe slurry at the point of use. The proposed novel technology of acoustic coaxing induced microcavitation (ACIM) is a means to constructively control acoustic microcavitation and direct its high intensity energy implosions at specific particle sites. ACIM will achieve both the detection and destruction of the stray large particles and render the entire slurry CMP-safe at the point of use. The ACIM slurry monitor-comminuter would be the first fully in-line, real-time, point of use method for detecting stray large particles and agglomerates and for reducing them to a nano-fine state. The rapidly growing CMP industry presents a well-developed market for this environmentally friendly ACIM tool