SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes to develop a new "green" ultra-high-speed single-wafer ozone-water-based resist and heavy organic residue removal process for electronic device manufacturing. The drive to smaller feature sizes and larger wafer sizes in next generation device manufacturing has led to the growth in the use of single-wafer wet processing in lieu of batch processing. Initial measurements show that this process can achieve photoresist etch rates (removal rates) in excess of 20,000 Angstroms/ minute. Very high etch rate is critical to the achievement of practical throughputs using single-wafer processing. Initial data and analytical modeling indicates the potential of this process to increase etch rates to even higher levels. Five goals of this project are: 1) measure resist etch rate as a function of temperature; 2) measure the resist etch rate as a function of process chemistry flow rate; 3) evaluate the influence of process chemistry on resist removal; 4) demonstrate process performance using patterned test wafers; and 5) prepare a preliminary design for a process for further evaluation in Phase II. The commercial application of this project will be in the manufacture of high density semiconductor devices. The successful completion of this research program will culminate in the development of the next generation of high density semiconductor devices which will not only increase performance and decrease costs, but will also provide significant environmental benefits through the use of environmentally benign chemicals in lieu of acids and solvents. The market for wafer wet processing equipment alone is projected to reach $3.1 billion by 2005. The ozone-water based process developed in the course of this research can not only be used in semiconductor wafer manufacturing, but also for magnetic disc manufacturing, optical disc manufacturing and flat panel manufacturing

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop process technology for removing photoresist from semiconductor wafers at high speed while not damaging underlying materials. This process technology can be readily integrated into existing single wafer wet processing tools. The development of higher performance semiconductor devices with smaller feature sizes has driven the adoption of copper and low-k dielectric materials that are susceptible to damage by traditional oxygen plasma based resist removal processes. While other low temperature plasma processes are being explored as low damage alternatives, appreciably lower resist removal rates (1,000 to 2,000 A /min) are a significant limitation. In response to this challenge the company successfully developed a new ozone-water based single wafer process chemistry which does not damage low k dielectric materials such as Black Diamond (TM), and does not corrode copper. In phase I this process achieved an etch rate greater than 8,000 A /min. The phase II research will concentrate on the early integration of the process hardware and process technology into a commercial single wafer spin processing system, the further development of process capabilities using 300 mm customer wafers, and the placement of three systems at customer sites for evaluation. Commercially, the successful completion of this research program will culminate in the development of a new single wafer process technology for use in the manufacture of the high-density semiconductor devices with feature sizes below 90 nm. Nearly all of the new manufacturing capacity is built for 300 mm wafer fabrication at the leading edge technology node. In addition to direct sales of $60 to $120 million per year of new wafer processing equipment incorporating this technology, this project will enable the productivity benefits and reduction in unit manufacturing costs provided by the early migration to the next technology node. In addition, the innovative copper compatible cleaning chemistry developed here holds promise for corrosion free cleaning and surface treatment of copper in other electronic device manufacturing applications. Finally, this process uses an environmentally benign "green" chemistry.