Papers by Author: Martine Claes

Abstract: The cumulative installed solar power generation has been rising exponentially over the past decade. This has lead to a concomitant rise in production capabilities, leading eventually to excess production capabilities and rapid price declines per unit. In order to compete with the standard electricity generation the cost of solar panel production and installation needs to decrease even further. At the same time the solar panel and cell makers need to be able to keep a healthy margin. A crucial element in this exercise is a close control on the Cost of Ownership (CoO) of a solar cell / panel fabrication site.

Abstract: NMP is a commonly used solvent for removing positive photoresist in 3D applications, especially in electroplating and (micro-) bumping. However, the negative photoresists are more and more preferred in these applications. Unfortunately, NMP is inefficient for negative photoresist and it is not considered in Europe as an ESH solvent anymore. In this paper a comparative study was carried out in order to identify a solvent that is ESH friendly and a one-size-fits-all solution for stripping negative-tone and thick positive-tone photoresist (2-22 μm) for (micro-) bumping, electroplating and TSV etch applications. The study was performed at tool level.

Abstract: Atomic force microscope (AFM) with inclined sample measurement and hydrophobic functionalized AFM probe was used to visualize the sidewall of low-k pattern and allowed to characterize the hydrophobic characteristics on the sidewall after low-k etch. To functionalized the AFM probe, 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane (FDTS) as a hydrophobic film was coated on an AFM probe. Because of the magnitude of the phobic-phobic interaction force and the tip forced to make a phase shift. Using this technique the visualization and characterization of the etch residue on the low-k sidewall can be successfully performed. It is shown that the investigation toward an effective chemical clean for the etch residue removal could be applicable.

Abstract: With the continuous decrease of feature size of semiconductor devices new process related challenges must be overcome continuously. One of the key issues for technology development is to have the proper metrology in place to evaluate the myriad process steps fast and accurately. Sometimes the mere existence of a particular metrology is not enough because of cost and throughput issues. The goal of this paper is to show that simply by monitoring the background signal of a light scattering tool, certain process optimizations and monitoring can be done much faster while bringing down the cost significantly. We focus particularly on post I/I strip optimization in this paper.

Abstract: We report in this work some process optimization effort in performing poly silicon removal for replacement gate process integration. Successful wet poly silicon removal after dummy gate patterning is not only conditioned by suitable process conditions during wet removal but is also impacted by process steps prior to gate removal A thorough evaluation of the impact on poly removal from dopants or contaminants introduced in the poly silicon by previous processing is done, resulting in an optimized integration flow with successful poly removal. This work also shows that use of diluted TMAH chemistry instead of diluted ammonia in performing poly silicon removal provides better ability in removing poly silicon especially in narrow gate structures.

Abstract: In Back-End-of-Line processing, the remaining photoresist layer after plasma etch is traditionally removed using a plasma process. Plasma process was reported to induce damage to porous dielectric [1-3]. To minimize damage to low-k material, wet alternative methods of removal of photoresist layer on porous low-k dielectrics are gaining a renewed interest [4]. However, the presence of a “crust” generated by etch plasma at the photoresist surface makes it impossible to completely remove by a pure organic solvent. Indeed, the crust, most likely composed of crosslinked polymer, is not soluble in organic solvents [5]. For this reason, a UV pre-treatment is investigated to break cross-links in the crust or to modify the crust to enhance removal efficiency with solvent stripping in more advanced generations.