SBIR Phase II: Environmentally Benign, High-Pressure Plasma Cleaning Tool for Photoresists

This SBIR Phase II project focuses on the development of a cleaning tool for the removal of tenacious organic residues from 200 mm wafers. These residues arise from ion bombardment of the photoresist films during processing. Organic residue removal encompasses approximately half of the cleaning operations in a semiconductor manufacturing plant. Surfx Technologies has developed a novel high-pressure plasma cleaning process that uses environmentally benign reagents and generates minimal waste. Results from Phase I indicate that ion-implanted resists may be stripped away in 5 min at 125 C, without any film popping and particle contamination as is normally observed during dry processing. The Phase II project will thoroughly research and optimize the process chemistry. In addition, a prototype cleaning system will be developed that meets all the technical criteria established by the semiconductor industry for organic cleaning operations. This SBIR Phase II project has broad commercial and societal impact. Semiconductor equipment devoted to organic residue cleaning represents a mult-ibillion dollar market. If our environmentally benign, high-pressure plasma cleaning tool can achieve all the technical objectives outlined in the proposal than it stands a good chance of garnering a significant share of this market. Moreover, it will replace current water-wasteful and hazardous wet cleans with an innovative process that uses non-toxic reagents and generates minimal waste. This will substantially benefit our society by mitigating the environmental, health and safety impacts of semiconductor manufacturing.