Scaling-driven nanoelectronics

Supporting expertise: ultra-clean processing, characterization, reliability

• Cleaning/contamination control
• Material and component analysis
• Reliability and modeling

Invent - Imec examines cleaning processes that can remove nanosized residues without damaging the narrow lines or other features on the wafer, or the wafer material itself. This research includes studying the impact of conductive particles on leakage current, the damage induced by physical cleaning, and removing particles using megasonic agitation and high-velocity liquid aerosols.

Achieve - One of the critical challenges in cleaning is removing the post-ion implant photoresist, without substrate loss, dopant loss, or damage to the underlying gate stacks. In 2007, imec examined a combination of cryogenic CO₂ aerosol pretreatment and wet cleaning techniques. This study proved that the CO₂ aerosol treatment can sufficiently damage the crusted resist layer to enable the wet removal.