Patent ID: 8148310

Claim:
A method of cleaning semiconductor substrates comprising the steps of: a. providing a substrate having a surface comprising copper-containing conductor and a low-k dielectric material and one or more of etching residue, planarization residue, and copper oxide disposed on the surface, which generated from a damascene or dual damascene manufacturing processes or thereof; b. contacting the surface of the substrate with an effective amount of an aqueous cleaning solution, for a time and at a temperature sufficient to remove residue and/or copper oxide, wherein the solution comprises: i. from about 6 wt % to about 30 wt % of an alkyl diphosphonic acid of the basic structure: wherein R 1 and R 2 are either the same or different and select from the group consisting of hydrogen (H), hydroxide (OH), chloride (Cl), alkyl or aryl having between 1 to about 8 carbon atoms and alkyl or aryl amine; ii. a second acidic compound is selected from the group consisting of; phosphonoformic acid, sulfamic acid, and fluoroboric acid; iii. a buffering amount of one or more basic compounds to adjust pH from about 6 to about 10; iv. from 0% by weight and up to 5% by weight of a surfactant; and v. water; wherein the cleaning process is following chemical mechanical planarization step during the semiconductor fabrication processes; wherein the mole ratio of alkyl diphosphonic acid to second acidic compound is from about 1:1 to about 10:1.