Claims
- 1. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer, comprising:
scrubbing the surface of the wafer with a cleaning brush that applies a chemical solution to the surface of the wafer; removing the cleaning brush from contact with the surface of the wafer; and delivering a flow of water to the surface of the wafer, the delivering being configured to substantially remove the chemical solution from the surface of the wafer.
- 2. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 1, wherein the cleaning brush that applies the chemical solution implements a through the brush (TTB) chemical delivery technique.
- 3. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 1, wherein the scrubbing is performed in a brush box, the brush box having the cleaning brush and a second cleaning brush.
- 4. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 3, wherein the second cleaning brush is implemented to scrub a bottom surface of the wafer.
- 5. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 1, wherein the removing of the cleaning brush from contact with the surface of the wafer completes a chemical cleaning operation.
- 6. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 1, wherein the delivering of the flow of water to the surface of the wafer further comprises:
setting a first delivery source and a second delivery source over the surface of the wafer in order to deliver the flow of water to the surface of the wafer; and wherein between about 150 ml/minute and about 750 ml/minute of water flows through each of the first and second delivery sources.
- 7. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 6, further comprising:
setting a pressure ranging between about 20 psi and about 50 psi for the first delivery source and the second delivery source.
- 8. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 6, further comprising:
setting a time ranging between about 5 seconds and about 60 seconds for the delivering of the flow of water to the surface of the wafer.
- 9. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 6, further comprising:
continuing the delivering of the flow of water to the surface of the wafer until a pH of fluids over the surface of the wafer is at least about 4 or greater.
- 10. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 6, further comprising:
continuing the delivering of the flow of water to the surface of the wafer until a pH of fluids over the surface of the wafer is at most about 8.5 or less.
- 11. A method of cleaning a surface of a wafer as recited in claim 1, wherein the chemical solution on the cleaning brush is maintained at a substantially constant chemical concentration during the scrubbing and during the delivering.
- 12. A method for cleaning a semiconductor wafer, comprising:
introducing the wafer into a brush box; supporting the wafer with a bottom brush and a set of rollers; scrubbing a top surface of the wafer with a top cleaning brush that applies a chemical solution to the surface of the wafer; removing the top cleaning brush from the top surface of the wafer; and rinsing the top surface of the semiconductor wafer with a cleaning fluid while the top cleaning brush is removed from the top surface.
- 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the cleaning fluid is deionized water.
- 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the method operation of supporting the wafer with a bottom brush and a set of rollers includes,
rotating the wafer at a speed of about 20 rotations per minute.
- 15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:
removing the wafer from the brush box; and repeating the scrubbing with another wafer without rinsing the top cleaning brush.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/329,207, filed on Jun. 10, 1999, and entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CLEANING A SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER.” The disclosure of this related application is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09329207 |
Jun 1999 |
US |
Child |
10766733 |
Jan 2004 |
US |