Patent ID: 8920571

Claim:
A method of cleaning a substrate surface following chemical mechanical polishing, comprising: engaging a surface of a rotating wafer with an outer circumferential surface of a rotating cylindrical foam roller, the cylindrical foam roller having a plurality of circumferentially and outwardly extending spaced apart nodules extending from the outer circumferential surface, each nodule defining a height extending from the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical foam roller to a substrate engagement surface of the nodule, the substrate engagement surface of one or more of the nodules having a rounded or spherical surface, the cylindrical foam roller including a hollow rotatable base having one or more through channels that permit fluid flow between an inner surface and an outer surface of the rotatable base and a porous sponge material including the plurality of nodules and being positioned over at least a portion of the outer surface of the hollow rotatable base, wherein said sponge material fills one or more of the through channels, thereby interlocking the porous sponge material and hollow rotatable base such that the height and alignment of the nodules with respect to the hollow rotatable base is maintained as the roller is engaged with the substrate; injecting a fluid into the inner surface of the hollow rotatable base such that the liquid travels outwardly through the channels to the porous sponge material and onto the substrate; and positioning the cylindrical foam roller on the substrate such that the one or more nodules are positioned to have only the rounded or spherical substrate engagement surface contact the substrate such that no linear surface of the one or more nodules contacts the substrate.