Patent ID: 6132811
Filing Date: 2000-10-17
Classification: F26B,H01L,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of drying a substrate upon removal from a wet chemical processing bath, the drying being accomplished without subjecting the substrate to high mechanical forces and without the introduction of surface contaminate, the substrate upon drying maintaining a surface purity adequate for the fabrication of microelectronic circuits, the method comprising:dipping the substrate into a wet chemical processing bath containing an aqueous HF solution having an HF concentration in between about 0.01% and about 0.1%, the bath causing the surface on the substrate to become or allowing the surface to remain hydrophobic upon separation of the substrate from the bath; andseparating the substrate from the bath at a temperature between 0 and 50 degrees Celsius and at a sufficiently slow rate of between about 0.1 cm/sec and about 20 cm/sec so that the surface tension of the aqueous acid solution causes it to withdraw from the hydrophobic surface of the substrate, thereby producing an essentially dry substrate upon removal from the bath.