Covidien announced that its Mallinckrodt Baker specialty chemicals business is launching a new solution to improve post-ash residue removal processes for semiconductor manufacturing.
Before and after using the Baker CLk-168 post-ash cleanerBaker CLk-168 post-ash cleaner is the latest in the company’s line of semiconductor chemicals designed for today’s difficult process integration challenges. The post-ash residue remover is specifically formulated to provide maximum compatibility with low-k dielectrics, copper, advanced barrier layers and etch-stop materials.
The aqueous-based, post-ash cleaner removes etch/ash residues and sidewall polymers, which can interfere with semiconductor device performance, from copper dual-damascene structures. It offers short operating times (15-90 seconds for a single-wafer process) and low operating temperatures starting at 25⁰C.
Designed for use in bath, batch spray and single-wafer tools, the residue remover provides long bath life (typically greater than 48 hours) and gives process engineers more versatility across multiple technology nodes to optimize ash removal processes to match specific device and substrate material parameters. Semiconductor manufacturers using low-k dielectrics and copper can increase throughput, achieve greater manufacturing efficiencies, and reduce operating costs and total cost of ownership by taking advantage of these performance characteristics.
Continuing growth in the use of copper in today’s most advanced semiconductor device designs, along with new hybrid substrate materials that are much more sensitive to solvent-based cleaning products, led Mallinckrodt Baker to develop the Baker CLk series of copper-compatible semiconductor chemicals.
“Baker CLk-168 residue remover provides excellent properties for the complex film stacks that are now prevalent in the sub-22 nm node. It is the first of a new type of performance chemistry Mallinckrodt Baker is offering in our new etch-selective materials portfolio,” said John Bubel, director of marketing, microelectronics materials, Mallinckrodt Baker. “These semiconductor chemistries are engineered to preferentially attack a given material while having a near-zero removal rate on surrounding materials.”