Source: {"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"}

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to monitoring the cleaning and drying processes during the manufacture of ICs, MEMS and other micro devices and more specifically to a micro sensor for high aspect ratio micro channels in dielectric films oriented parallel to the fluid-solid interface to emulate either “vertical” or “horizontal” micro features.
2. Description of the Related Art
A major challenge in manufacturing of the micro and nano devices is the cleaning and drying of very small void features (“micro features”), particularly those with large aspect ratios. These micro features are fabricated in various processing steps and can be very small voids such as gaps, holes, vias or trenches that are intentionally etched. The micro features can also be pores (voids) in a deposited dielectric material. Cleaning and drying occur repeatedly during the processing chain and are responsible for a significant part of the total processing time and for the consumption of much of the water, chemicals and energy.
In semiconductor manufacturing, trenches and vias are fabricated both in the device level and in the interconnect level. Most of these features have high aspect ratios with submicron openings and are therefore very difficult to clean and dry. In Integrated Circuits, MEMS and other micro device manufacturing, well controlled cleaning and drying are essential to avoid deformation of layers and improper adhesion of moving parts. Improper cleaning and drying would have a significant effect on manufacturing yield and device performance and reliability in both semiconductor and MEMS fabrication. Over-cleaning, over-rinsing or over-drying results in excessive use of chemicals, water and energy and also increases cycle time and potentially causes yield loss. Therefore, there is a strong economic and environmental incentive to use a process that is “just good enough”.
The fine structures left behind after processes such as etching, deposition, and patterning, need to be cleaned and the reaction by-products need to be removed often down to trace levels. This usually involves three steps: 1) application of a cleaning solution; 2) rinsing and/or purging using ultra pure water or other rinsing solutions; and 3) drying by removing and purging the traces of any solvents used during rinsing. Due to the undesirable surface tension associated with aqueous chemicals and non-wetting nature of most future dielectrics, industry is pursing the development of processes based on supercritical fluids such as supercritical carbon dioxide for cleaning and pattern development. Measurement of cleanliness under these processing conditions is very critical.
Cleaning, rinsing, and subsequent drying processes are often performed and controlled almost “blindly” and based on trial and error or past experience. The way these processes are monitored and controlled presently is based on ex-situ testing of wafer, chips, or structures. Within the process tool, fixed recipes are provided by tools and process suppliers. Run-by-run adjustments or control are based on external and delayed information on product performance or product yields. The key reason for this inefficient and costly approach is that no sensors or techniques are available to measure the cleanliness and monitor the removal of impurities from micro features—to measure cleanliness where it actually counts. The sensors that are currently available are used in the fabs to monitor the conditions of fluid inside the process vessels and tanks, but far away from the inside of micro features (that is what needs to be monitored; it is also the bottleneck of cleaning and drying). The present monitoring techniques and devices do not provide realistic and accurate information on the cleanliness and condition of micro features.
Industry currently works around this problem while waiting for a solution; the process condition and cleaning and drying are often set with very large factors of safety (over-cleaning and over-rinsing). Large quantities of water and other chemicals are used (much more than what is really needed). This results in wasted chemicals, increased process time, lowered throughput, increased cost, and it causes reliability issues because of lack of process control.
K. Romero et al “In-situ analysis of wafer surface and deep trench rinse,” Cleaning Technology in Semiconductor Device Manufacturing VI, The Electrochemical Society, 2000 propose a trench device for monitoring the process in-situ. As shown in FIG. 1, a trench device 10 comprises a pair of conducting electrodes (Poly-Si) 12 and 13 sandwiched between dielectric (SiO2) layers 16 and 17 on opposite sides of a trench 14 on a substrate 18. Trench 14 is oriented perpendicular to the fluid-solid interface 19 of the device. An impedance analyzer 20 applies a measurement voltage 21 to the electrodes, which carry the measurement signal (voltage and current) to the trench. The impedance analyzer measures the impedance between its two terminals (ratio of voltage and current and the phase difference between the voltage and current).
Standard fabrication techniques limit the ability to form very deep trenches that are also very narrow, hence the aspect ratio of the trench. Furthermore, these deep etch techniques are not particularly well controlled so the actual aspect ratio of a particular trench may deviate significantly from the aspect ratio of the micro feature it is intended to emulate. In addition, the trench device can only emulate “vertical” micro features, which are common in microelectronics processing. However, MEMS and microfluidic devices often include “horizontal” micro features. Thus the trench device limits the type and aspect ratio of micro features that can be monitored and the accuracy of the monitoring. The trench device includes a single sensor (pair of electrodes) that measures the impedance at a single depth in the trench. Multiple electrodes at different depths in the trench device would require extra manufacturing steps and therefore substantially increase its cost.
Furthermore, for the sensor to be useful as a monitor of the fluid in the micro feature, the total parasitic capacitance between the electrodes and the substrate and/or fluid must be sufficiently small to allow an electrical measurement of the total impedance between the electrodes to resolve the solution resistance Rsol'n and/or the interface double layer capacitance Cdl. If the parasitic capacitance dominates the total electrical response, then the circuit will not have a good signal to noise ratio and the sensor will not be very sensitive. In the paper by Romero et al., the parasitic capacitance was found to dominate the solution resistance. At the parasitic capacitance measured (88 pF), the equivalent circuit calculation predicts no discernable impedance variation between highest and lowest trench resistances. The full ionic concentration range was not experimentally resolvable in comparison to electronic noise.