Tokyo Electron Limited

Kyoto University

Iwatani Corporation

Kensuke Inai

Kazuya Dobashi

Misako Saito

Akitaka Shimizu

Jiro Matsuo

Toshio Seki

Takehiko Senoo

Yu Yoshino

Toshihiro Aida

Kenta Yasuda

Takaaki Aoki

A substrate cleaning apparatus for removing particles adhered to a substrate includes a cleaning chamber for cleaning a substrate under a vacuum atmosphere, a mounting unit, provided in the cleaning chamber, for mounting the substrate thereon. The substrate cleaning apparatus further includes a nozzle unit for injecting a cleaning gas from an area of a higher pressure than an atmosphere in which the substrate is mounted toward the substrate in the cleaning chamber, generating a gas cluster as an aggregate of atoms or molecules of the cleaning gas by adiabatic expansion and irradiating the gas cluster to the substrate in a direction perpendicular thereto, a gas exhaust port for evacuating the cleaning chamber, and a moving unit for relatively moving the mounting unit and the nozzle unit.

Substrate cleaning apparatus

In order to remove a deposit adhered to the backside of the peripheral portion of a wafer, a cleaning gas containing carbon dioxide gas is set to a pressure that is slightly lower than the pressure corresponding to a vapor pressure line of carbon dioxide at a temperature in the nozzle, and a gas cluster of carbon dioxide is generated. A gas cluster of carbon dioxide generated under such a condition is in a state immediately prior to undergoing a phase change to a liquid and therefore is a gas cluster having a large cluster diameter and having molecules that are firmly solidified.

Substrate cleaning method, substrate cleaning apparatus and vacuum processing system

A substrate cleaning method for removing particles adhered to a substrate includes: acquiring particle information including diameters of the particles adhered to the substrate; controlling, based on the acquired particle information, a factor related to sizes of gas clusters having aggregates of atoms or molecules of a cleaning gas; ejecting the cleaning gas, at a higher pressure than a processing atmosphere where the substrate is provided, to the processing atmosphere and generating the gas clusters by adiabatic expansion; and removing the particles by irradiating the gas clusters in a perpendicular direction to a surface of the substrate. As a result, even if recesses for a circuit pattern are formed on the surface of the substrate, the particles in the recesses can be removed at a high removal rate.

Substrate cleaning method, substrate cleaning device, and vacuum processing device

Deposits such as particles deposited on a surface of a target object can be easily removed while suppressing damage to the target object such as destruction of pattern formed on the surface of the target object or film roughness on the surface of the target object. In a pre-treatment, vapor of a hydrogen fluoride is supplied to a wafer W to dissolve a natural oxide film, so that a depositattached to a surface of the natural oxide filmis slightly separated from a surface of the wafer W. A carbon dioxide gas that does not react with an underlying filmis supplied to a processing gas atmosphere where the wafer W is placed, so that a gas cluster of the carbon dioxide gas is generated. Then, the gas cluster in a non-ionized state is irradiated toward the wafer W to remove the deposit

Cleaning method, processing apparatus, and storage medium

A substrate cleaning apparatus includes a supporting unit, provided in a processing chamber having a gas exhaust port, for supporting a substrate; one or more nozzle units, each for ejecting gas clusters to a peripheral portion of the substrate supported by the supporting unit to remove unnecessary substances from the peripheral portion; and a moving mechanism for changing relative positions of the supporting unit and the nozzle unit during ejecting the gas clusters. Each nozzle unit discharges a cleaning gas having a pressure higher than that in the processing chamber so that the cleaning gas is adiabatically expanded to form aggregates of atoms and/or molecules.

Growing community of inventors

Nirasaki, Japan

Kensuke Inai