Patent ID: 7789971

Claim:
A method of processing a substrate comprising: positioning the substrate on a substrate holder in a processing chamber; performing a cleaning process, wherein the substrate is cleaned using a first supercritical fluid comprising supercritical CO 2 and a cleaning chemistry, and wherein the cleaning process is effective to at least partially oxidize a surface of the substrate and to remove at least a portion of the oxidized surface, while another portion remains as small fragments of oxidized residue; and performing a treatment process after the cleaning process, wherein the substrate is treated using a second supercritical fluid consisting of supercritical CO 2 and benzyl chloride as a functionalizing agent to react with and functionalize the small fragments of oxidized residue and render the functionalized small fragments more soluble in supercritical CO 2 to facilitate removal of the small fragments of oxidized residue in the second supercritical fluid.