Did You Know...
...that a workman who left the soap mixing machine on too long was responsible for making Ivory Soap? He was so embarrassed by his mistake that he threw the mess in a stream. Imagine his dismay when the evidence of his error floated to the surface! Result: Ivory soap, the soap that floats.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7204889 | Method of reducing water spotting and oxide growth on a semiconductor structure The present invention relates to a method of cleaning and drying a semiconductor structure in a modified conventional gas etch/rinse or dryer vessel. ... | 04/17/2007 |
| 7201808 | Method and apparatus for rotating a semiconductor substrate An apparatus that includes a rotatable single wafer holding bracket with one or more wafer supports disposed on the single wafer holding bracket, wherein the one or more wafer supports position a center of a wafer to be off-center from an axis of rotation of the sin... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7198055 | Meniscus, vacuum, IPA vapor, drying manifold A head is provided which includes a first surface of the head capable of being in close proximity to the wafer surface, and includes a first conduit region on the head where the first conduit region is defined for delivery of a first fluid to wafer of the surface an... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7195021 | In-situ cleaning of light source collector optics A method for cleaning optics in a chamber. The method can include introducing a first etchant into a chamber that encloses an optical component and a source of electromagnetic radiation that is suitable for lithography, ionizing the first etchant, and removing debri... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7195679 | Versatile system for wafer edge remediation The present invention provides a system (200, 300) for remediating aberrations along the perimeter of a semiconductor wafer (202). The system includes a cleaning apparatus (204) within which the wafer is spun within a confined area. A chuck (... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7195676 | Method for removal of flux and other residue in dense fluid systems Method for removing flux residue and defluxing residue from an article using a dense processing fluid and a dense rinse fluid is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, there is provided a method comprising: introducing the article comprising contaminants into a proces... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7191785 | Substrate processing apparatus for resist film removal Semiconductor wafers are cleaned by placing the semiconductor wafers in a processing vessel, forming a pure water film on the surfaces of the wafers, forming an ozonic water film by dissolving ozone gas in the pure water film, and removing resist films formed on the... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7191787 | Method and apparatus for semiconductor wafer cleaning using high-frequency acoustic energy with supercritical fluid An apparatus and a method is provided for using high-frequency acoustic energy with a supercritical fluid to perform a semiconductor wafer (“wafer”) cleaning process. High-frequency acoustic energy is applied to the supercritical fluid to impart energy to partic... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7186299 | Method of rinsing and drying semiconductor substrates A method for cleaning and drying semiconductor wafers improves device yield by providing more advanced control of the ratio of drying fluid to cleaning fluid, for example the ratio of N2 vapor to IPA vapor. In addition, a quick drain process is employed to improve p... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7185661 | Reciprocating megasonic probe A method of cleaning a substrate comprises placing the substrate on a rotating fixture, placing a liquid on at least one side of the substrate, and creating a standing wave of megasonic energy oriented generally parallel to the substrate. The standing wave generates... | 03/06/2007 |
| 7182819 | Methods for cleaning a chamber of semiconductor device manufacturing equipment Methods for cleaning a chamber of semiconductor device manufacturing equipment are disclosed. An illustrated method comprises supplying cleaning gas into a chamber to start a cleaning process; detecting the intensity of a wavelength for the cleaning gas; fixing a va... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7180035 | Substrate processing device A steam generator 40′ provided in a substrate processing apparatus includes a tank 301 having a hollow cylindrical member 302 formed of a composite of PTFE and PFA and a pair of side wall plates 303 connected to the opposite ends of the... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7171973 | Substrate processing apparatus The substrate processing apparatus has an enclosure structure enclosing a substrate support member to define a processing space. The enclosure structure has an opening closed by a shutter. A processing fluid supply unit, which supplies processing fluid, such as chem... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7172674 | Device for liquid treatment of wafer-shaped articles A device for liquid treatment of a defined area of a wafer-shaped article, especially of a wafer, in which a mask is kept at a defined short distance to the wafer-shaped article such that liquid can be retained between the mask and the defined area of the wafer-shap... | 02/06/2007 |
| 7169235 | Cleaning method and polishing apparatus employing such cleaning method A method is suitable for cleaning substrates, after polishing, that require a high degree of cleanliness, such as semiconductor wafers, glass substrates, or liquid crystal displays. The method includes polishing a substrate using an abrasive liquid containing abrasi... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7169664 | Method of reducing wafer contamination by removing under-metal layers at the wafer edge According to the present invention, a metal and a barrier material, such as copper and a tantalum-based barrier material, are effectively removed from the wafer edge and especially from the bevel by using an etchant that comprises a diluted mixture of hydrofluoric a... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7165563 | Method and apparatus to decouple power and cavitation for megasonic cleaning applications An apparatus and a method is provided for decoupling a cavitation in a liquid from an acoustic energy used to induce the cavitation. Broadly speaking, a pressure adjustment is used to control an acoustically induced cavitation in a liquid contained within a wafer cl... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7165565 | Megasonic wafer cleaning tank with reflector for improved wafer edge cleaning In a first aspect, a first apparatus is provided. The first apparatus includes (1) a tank adapted to contain fluid; (2) at least one support component mounted in the tank and adapted to support a substrate in a supported position at least partially submerged in the ... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7166184 | Multi-stage type processing apparatus A multi-stage type processing apparatus which can be positioned in a limited space without having a complicated driving mechanism, includes processing units which are stacked in a multi-stage state in the vertical direction. Each processing unit has a cup surroundin... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7166183 | Apparatus and method for treating edge of substrate An apparatus for treating an edge of a semiconductor substrate includes an etchant supply nozzle for supplying a first etchant to the edge of the semiconductor substrate. The apparatus further includes a shielding cover for preventing an etchant from flowing to a sh... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7163588 | Processing a workpiece using water, a base, and ozone Contaminants such as photoresist are quickly removed from a wafer having metal features, using water, ozone and a base such as ammonium hydroxide. Processing is performed at room temperature to avoid metal corrosion. Ozone is delivered into a stream of process liqui... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7163019 | Method of reducing water spotting and oxide growth on a semiconductor structure The present invention relates to a method of cleaning and drying a semiconductor structure in a modified conventional gas etch/rinse or dryer vessel. In an embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor structure is placed into a first treatment vessel and che... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7155767 | Scrub cleaning device, scrub cleaning method, and manufacturing method of information recording medium There is disclosed a scrub cleaning device which can reduce cleaning time and which requires no large-scaled device for transferring a substrate to the next cleaning process. The scrub cleaning device comprises: a scrub pad 10 provided with two annular plate ... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7153370 | Method of cleaning semiconductor wafer The present application discloses a method of cleaning a semiconductor wafer by mounting a wafer to a chuck, positioning a gas guard, defining therein a chamber having an open bottom, immediately above the layer of water, spraying de-ionized water onto the wafer whi... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7153369 | Method of chemical mechanical polishing It is an object of the invention to provide an aqueous dispersion for CMP that produces no scratches on polishing surfaces and that polishes with an adequate rate, when used for polishing of copper and the like. The aqueous dispersion of the invention contains water... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7153388 | Chamber for high-pressure wafer processing and method for making the same Broadly speaking, a wafer processing chamber for performing a high pressure wafer process is provided. More specifically, the wafer processing chamber incorporates a wafer processing volume and an outer chamber volume. The wafer processing volume is configured to co... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7153197 | Method for achieving uniform CU CMP polishing A method for removing a metal oxide overlayer over a target polishing surface in conjunction with a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process to improve polishing uniformity including providing a substrate target polishing surface having a layer of an oxide of a m... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7147722 | Method for in-situ cleaning of carbon contaminated surfaces Activated gaseous species generated adjacent a carbon contaminated surface affords in-situ cleaning. A device for removing carbon contamination from a surface of the substrate includes (a) a housing defining a vacuum chamber in which the substrate is located; (b) a ... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7146994 | Active rinse shield for electrofill chemical bath and method of use An active rinse shield designed to protect electrofill chemical baths from excessive dilution during rinse sprays on the semiconductor wafer. The shield uses overlapping blades to cover the bath, making a physical barrier between the bath chemistry and the wafer rin... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7143772 | Method of manufacturing a circuit board and its manufacturing apparatus It is possible to obtain a clean high-quality circuit board by removing affected material and foreign matter produced when a hole is formed. A manufacturing method of the circuit board includes (a) preparing a film-coated board material by bonding a film material as... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7143527 | System and method for modulating flow through multiple ports in a proximity head A method of forming a dynamic liquid meniscus includes forming a meniscus at a first size, the meniscus being formed between a proximity head and a first surface and changing the meniscus to a second size by modulating a flow through at least one of a set of ports o... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7140066 | Apparatus and method for inspecting and cleaning semiconductor devices A semiconductor device is inspected and cleaned by applying a vacuum to the area in which the semiconductor device is positioned. Micro-sized particulates that are brushed off the semiconductor device during cleaning are drawn off by the vacuum. ... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7134946 | Apparatus to treat and inspect a substrate An apparatus for treating a substrate with a cryogenic impingement fluid includes a protective enclosure defining an internal cavity, a cryogenic fluid applicator positioned within the internal cavity and a snow generation system connected to the cryogenic fluid app... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7131217 | Apparatus and method for drying semiconductor wafers using IPA vapor drying method An apparatus for drying semiconductor wafers includes a bath for receiving semiconductor wafers and for holding a fluid, a chamber for providing an area where vapor is flowable over the bath, a supply pipeline for supplying vapor to the chamber, a vapor discharging ... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7128279 | Method and apparatus for fluid delivery to a backside of a substrate A fluid delivery device for delivering fluid to the backside of a substrate while minimizing waste is provided. The device includes an inner cylindrical tube having a top opening and a bottom opening. An upper cap overlying a top portion of the inner cylindrical tub... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7121286 | Method for cleaning a manufacturing apparatus and a manufacturing apparatus A method for cleaning a manufacturing apparatus, includes introducing a cleaning gas including fluorine so as to flow from upstream toward an outlet port in a reaction chamber; and flowing a protective gas which reacts with the fluorine from a vicinity of the outlet... | 10/17/2006 |
| 7119052 | Compositions and methods for high-efficiency cleaning/polishing of semiconductor wafers A composition including supercritical fluid and at least one additive selected from fluoro species, and primary and/or secondary amines, optionally with co-solvent, low k material attack-inhibitor(s) and/or surfactant(s). The composition has particular utility for c... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7117876 | Method of cleaning a side of a thin flat substrate by applying sonic energy to the opposite side of the substrate A method of processing thin flat articles, particularly semiconductor wafers, utilizing sonic energy. In one aspect, the invention is a method comprising: supporting a substrate in a generally horizontal orientation and transmitting sonic energy to the substrate whi... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7111797 | Non-contact fluid particle cleaner and method A fluid particle cleaner and method are disclosed. The invention provides a partition to a side of a fluid nozzle to form: a central cavity configured to define the fluid departing the surface into a central cavity vortex; and a side cavity adjacent the central cavi... | 09/26/2006 |
| 7111517 | Apparatus and method for in-situ measuring of vibrational energy in a process bath of a vibrational cleaning system Apparatus and method are provided for in-situ measurement of vibrational energy applied to a wafer in a process bath of a vibrational cleaning system. The apparatus may be made up of a test wafer comprising an array of pressure sensing elements disposed thereon for ... | 09/26/2006 |
