Surface cleaning by electrostatic removal of particles

Abstract

Contamination of product surfaces by particles during microelectronics manufacturing can lead to significant losses of product yield and reliability. In many cases, cleaning by an effective dry process would be preferable to cleaning by an equally effective wet process. A new dry process for cleaning is described. An insulating film, approximately 20μm thick, is placed on the contaminated product surface. When the film is removed from the contaminated product surface, particles as small as 1μm are removed with the film. Particles deposited dry are substantially easier to remove than particles deposited wet and allowed to dry. Various insulating films have shown successful particle removal, but all films tested have also deposited some of the particles that were present on the films before use.