International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Keith Randal Pope

Kenneth John McCullough

Wayne Martin Moreau

Charles Jesse Taft

John Patrick Simons

John Michael Cotte

Dario Leonardo Goldfarb

Rangarajan Jagannathan

David Lee Rath

Harald F Okorn-Schmidt

Karen P Madden

Daniel C Edelstein

Stephen Ellinwood Luce

Robert J Purtell

Philip C Hobbs

Wilma Jean Horkans

Glenn Walton Gale

Donald M DeCain

Pamela E Jones

Peter D Roper

Richard Paul Volant

Naftali Eliahu Lustig

Harold John Hovel

John Samuel Batchelder

Cuc Kim Huynh

Maurice McGlashan-Powell

William Alfred Syverson

Daniel Guidotti

Matteo Flotta

Gustav Schrottke

Philip C D Hobbs

Laura Beth Rothman

David J Mount

Stephen B Douglas

Thomas Edwin Sandwick

Thomas J Martin

Naftall E Lustig

Rick C White

Miro Plechaty

Amarnath Jha

Clifton Busby

Raymond J Doww, Iii

A surface cleaning apparatus comprising a chamber, and a thermal transfer device. The chamber is capable of holding a semiconductor structure therein. The thermal transfer device is connected to the chamber. The thermal transfer device has a surface disposed inside the chamber for contacting the semiconducting structure and controlling a temperature of the semiconductor structure in contact with the surface. The thermal transfer device has a thermal control module connected to the surface for heating and cooling the surface to thermally cycle the surface. The thermal control module effects a substantially immediate thermal response of the surface when thermally recycling the surface.

Apparatus and method for the rapid thermal control of a work piece in liquid or supercritical fluid

A composition which includes liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide and an acid having a pKa of less than about 4. The composition is employed in a process of removing residue from a precision surface, such as a semiconductor sample, in which the precision surface is contacted with the composition under thermodynamic conditions consistent with the retention of the liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide in the liquid or supercritical state.

Process of removing residue from a precision surface using liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide composition

A method for cleaning a semiconductor structure including providing a chamber for holding the semiconductor structure and a dense phase fluid, providing a thermal transfer device having a thermal transfer surface, connecting the thermal transfer device to the chamber, placing the semiconductor structure in the chamber in contact with the thermal transfer surface and thermally cycling the thermal transfer surface.

Method for the rapid thermal control of a work piece in liquid or supercritical fluid

A supercritical fluid cleaning system uses process fluid for operating rotary motors in the chamber with fluid bearings and fluid load levitation for rotating workpieces and impellers. Rotating speed and direction sensors and a home position locator facilitate motor control. Impellers add further agitation of the fluid in the chamber, faster processing, and greater uniformity of supercritical fluid components and increase mass transfer of fluid to the processed surface. Centrifugal operated clips and cassettes hold wafers and impellers. Non-contact, fluid operated rotating mechanisms reduce contamination. Physical, rotational, and shear affects are enhanced through centrifugal forces which can induce the separation of films localized deposits or molecular products of the reaction from the surface. There is a concomitant agitation of fluid, and continuous angular acceleration imparted to the processed surface features.

Method and apparatus for rotation of a workpiece in supercritical fluid solutions for removing photo resist, residues and particles therefrom

Methods are provided for making microfilters by subtractive techniques which remove a component or part of a filter material to form pores in the filter material and additive techniques which deposit a filter material onto a porous underlying substrate. All the methods employ a supercritical fluid or mixture which have very high solvency properties and low viscosity and COis the preferred supercritical fluid.

Method to build a microfilter

Apparatus and method for rapid thermal control of a workpiece in liquid or dense phase fluid

A method and apparatus are provided for in situ monitoring and analyzing of process parameters for semiconductor fabrication processes including cleaning semiconductor wafers utilizing a supercritical fluid or a high pressure liquid such as CO. The method and apparatus utilize a spectrometer having a reflective mirror proximate the vessel holding the high pressure fluid. NIR radiation transmitted into the vessel through a window and out of the vessel through an opposed window is reflected and detected and measured and the composition of the fluid in the pressure vessel is determined allowing the user to control process parameters based on the measured composition.

Method of in situ monitoring of supercritical fluid process conditions

A process of removing residue from an etched precision surface. In this process the etched precision surface is contacted with a composition which includes liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide and a fluoride-generating species.

Process of removing residue material from a precision surface

Liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide composition

An optical switch for routing light between two waveguides is disclosed. The switch, or router, comprises a movable waveguide, the movable waveguide having two positions, wherein in a first position the movable waveguide is interposed between the two waveguides and transmits light between the two waveguides by evanescent wave coupling, and in the other position the movable waveguide is retracted from the two waveguides and is not transmitting light between the two waveguides. Means for moving the movable waveguide between the two positions is also disclosed. The optical switches are used in M&times;N optical routing arrays being capable of directing light from any one of the M input ports to any one of the N output ports with additional ADD/DROP functions.

Evanescent wave tunneling optical switch and network

A process and apparatus for cleaning filters prior to recycling or disposal. In this process and apparatus liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide contacts the plugged pores of a filter under conditions in which carbon dioxide remains in the liquid or supercritical state.

Apparatus for cleaning filters

A workpiece holder for processing a workpiece in a chamber of a liquified fluid. In one embodiment, the workpiece holder includes a cylindrically shaped rotator having an exterior wall and at least one fluid guide on the exterior wall. The rotator is adapted to rotate and provide fluid flow across a first end of the rotator, and is adapted to provide fluid flow and mixing perpendicular to a surface of the first end of the rotator. A fixture is coupled to the first end of the rotator for securing the workpiece to the first end of the rotator.

Turbine part mount for supercritical fluid processor

A process of removing photoresist, previously subjected to ion implantation, from the surface of a workpiece. The process involves contacting the workpiece with a composition which includes liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide and between about 2% and about 20% of an alkanol having the structural formula C X OH, where X is fluorine, hydrogen or mixtures thereof; and x is an integer of 1 to 8, said percentages being by volume, based on the total weight of the composition.

Process of removing ion-implanted photoresist from a workpiece

A process of providing a semiconductor device with electrical interconnection capability wherein a sacrificial material is introduced into topographical features of the semiconductor device prior to chemical mechanical polishing so that debris formed during chemical mechanical polishing is incapable of falling into topographical features present on the semiconductor device. The sacrificial material is thereupon removed by liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide.

Process of providing a semiconductor device with electrical interconnection capability

Growing community of inventors

Danbury, CT, United States of America

Keith Randal Pope