Patent ID: 6858089

Claim:
A method for removing contaminant particles from a surface of a semiconductor wafer, comprising the steps of: transferring said wafer among a plurality of processing stations under computer control in a predetermined sequence starting at an input station and ending at an output station; identifying and characterizing contaminant particles on said wafer surface at at least one of said processing stations and creating a record of said contaminant particles data for said wafer at said at least one processing station; forming a solid film of sacrificial material on said wafer surface wherein a composition of said solid film is selected based on said contaminant particles data; transferring said solid film composition data and said contaminant particles data to a supercritical fluid cleaning station; transferring said wafer to said supercritical fluid cleaning station; performing supercritical fluid cleaning of said semiconductor wafer to physically remove said sacrificial film from said surface, whereby removing said sacrificial film facilitates removing said contaminant particles from said surface and wherein said supercritical fluid cleaning station applies a supercritical fluid cleaning recipe based on said solid film composition data and said contaminant particles data; and transferring said cleaned wafers to an output station.