Brush Scrub Cleaning after Spraying Ozonized Water on Si Wafer Treated by Chemical Mechanical Polishing

To clean the surface of 300-mm-diameter silicon wafers treated by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), the following steps were performed: (1) the wafer surfaces were first terminated with hydrogen using an etching solution of hydrofluoric acid, and (2) the wafers were then spun while ozonized water was sprayed before brush scrub cleaning was performed. The number of particles more than 100 nm in diameter remaining on the wafer decreased linearly with increasing time after spraying ozonized water for approximately 5 s before brush scrub cleaning. The wafers had fewer than 10 particles after spraying ozonized water for approximately 15 s followed by brush scrub cleaning. Such a cleaning effect was not accomplished when the ozonized water was not sprayed. A model of the brush scrub cleaning process is discussed from the view point that an oxide film is first formed on the wafer surface where no particles are adhered, and then grows laterally beneath the particles. The force then applied by the brush scrubber overcomes the adhesion force between the particles and the wafer, which results in their removal when the oxide layer reaches a sufficient thickness. The growth of the oxide film was confirmed by observing the spectra obtained by attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy (ATR) using a Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FTIR) and by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).