Lam Research Ag

Fraunhofer-gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.v.

Frank Holsteyns

Alexander Lippert

Christian Degel

Franz Josef Becker

Anette Jakob

The wet treatment of wafer-shaped articles is improved by utilizing a droplet generator designed to produce a spray of monodisperse droplets. The droplet generator is mounted above a spin chuck, and is moved across a major surface of the wafer-shaped article in a linear or arcuate path. The droplet generator includes a transducer acoustically coupled to its body such that sonic energy reaches a region of the body surrounding the discharge orifices. Each orifice has a width w of at least 1 &#x3bc;m and at most 200 &#x3bc;m and a height h such that a ratio of h to w is not greater than 1.

Method and apparatus for processing wafer-shaped articles

Improved methods and apparatus for cleaning substrates and enhancing diffusion limited reaction at substrate surfaces use piezoelectric transducers operating in the gigasonic domain. The resonator assemblies include plural transducer stacks each including a thin film piezoelectric element coupled to a resonator plate that faces the substrate. At the disclosed frequencies and powers used, Eckart or Rayleigh streaming can be induced in a liquid treatment medium without substantial generation of cavitation.

Ultrasonic treatment method and apparatus

A device and method for treating the surface of a semiconductor wafer provides a treatment fluid in the form of a dispersion of gas bubbles in a treatment liquid generated at acoustic pressures less than those required to induce cavitation in the treatment liquid. A resonator supplies ultrasonic or megasonic energy to the treatment fluid and is configured to create an interference pattern in the treatment fluid comprising regions of pressure amplitude minima and maxima at an interface of the treatment fluid and the semiconductor wafer.

Growing community of inventors

Kortenberg, Austria

Frank Holsteyns