The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 22, 2003
Filed:
Sep. 13, 2001
James DeYoung, Durham, NC (US);
James B. McClain, Raleigh, NC (US);
Michael E. Cole, Raleigh, NC (US);
David Brainard, Wake Forrest, NC (US);
Micell Technologies, Inc., Raleigh, NC (US);
Abstract
A method of cleaning and removing water, entrained solutes and particulate matter during a manufacturing process from a microelectronic device such as a resist-coated semiconductor substrate, a MEM's device, or an optoelectronic device comprising the steps of: (a) providing a partially fabricated integrated circuit, MEM's device, or optoelectronic device having water and entrained solutes on the substrate; (b) providing a densified (e.g., liquid or supercritical) carbon dioxide cleaning composition, the cleaning composition comprising carbon dioxide and, optionally but preferably, a cleaning adjunct; (c) immersing the surface portion in the densified carbon dioxide drying composition, and subjecting the densified carbon dioxide drying composition to cyclical phase modulation during at least a portion of the immersing step to thereby facilitating cleaning; and then (d) removing the cleaning composition from the surface portion. Process parameters are preferably controlled so that the drying composition is maintained as a homogeneous composition during the immersing step, the removing step, or both the immersing and removing step, without substantial deposition of the drying/cleaning adjunct or entrained solutes on the substrate.