Processing of semiconductor components with dense processing fluids and ultrasonic energy

• Main Authors: SCHWARZ, ALEXANDER, MCDERMOTT, WAYNE THOMAS, JONSON, ANDREW DAVID, SUBAWALLA, HOSHANG
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 31.03.2004
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE OILS, FATS, FATTY SUBSTANCES AND WAXES; APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED THEREFOR; BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CANDLES; CHEMISTRY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; CLEANING; CLEANING IN GENERAL; DETERGENT COMPOSITIONS; DETERGENTS; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; ELECTROGRAPHY; FATTY ACIDS THEREFROM; HOLOGRAPHY; MATERIALS THEREFOR; METALLURGY; ORIGINALS THEREFOR; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHOTOMECHANICAL PRODUCTION OF TEXTURED OR PATTERNED SURFACES,e.g. FOR PRINTING, FOR PROCESSING OF SEMICONDUCTORDEVICES; PHYSICS; PREVENTION OF FOULING IN GENERAL; RECOVERY OF GLYCEROL; RESIN SOAPS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; SOAP OR SOAP-MAKING; TRANSPORTING; USE OF SINGLE SUBSTANCES AS DETERGENTS

Processing an article involves introducing article into a processing chamber, preparing a dense fluid by introducing a subcritical fluid into a pressurization vessel, transferring a portion of the dense fluid from the vessel to the chamber, introducing processing agent(s) and ultrasonic energy into the chamber, contacting the article with dense processing fluid, and separating the spent dense processing fluid from the treated article. Processing an article (363), i.e. semiconductor components, involves introducing the article into a sealable processing chamber and sealing the processing chamber, preparing a dense fluid by introducing a subcritical fluid into a pressurization vessel and isolating the vessel and heating the subcritical fluid at constant volume and constant density to yield a dense fluid, transferring at least a portion of the dense fluid from the pressurization vessel to the processing chamber in which the transfer of the dense fluid is driven by the difference between the pressure in the pressurization vessel and the pressure in the processing chamber thus pressurizing the processing chamber with transferred dense fluid, introducing at least one processing agent into the processing chamber before, during, or after to provide a dense processing fluid, introducing ultrasonic energy into the processing chamber and contacting the article with the dense processing fluid to yield a spent dense processing fluid and a treated article, and separating the spent dense processing fluid from the treated article. An independent claim is also included for an apparatus for processing an article, which comprises a fluid storage tank (389) containing a subcritical fluid, at least one pressurization vessel (303, 305, 309) and piping mechanisms for transferring the subcritical fluid from the fluid storage tank to at least one pressurization vessel, heating mechanism to heat the contents of each pressurization vessel at constant volume and constant density to convert the subcritical fluid into a dense fluid, a sealable processing chamber for contacting an article with the dense fluid, ultrasonic generation mechanism for introducing ultrasonic energy into the sealable processing chamber, piping mechanism for transferring the dense fluid from the pressurization vessels into the sealable processing chamber, and at least one processing agent storage vessel and pumping mechanism to inject at least one processing agent into the pressurization vessel or from the pressurization vessel to the sealable processing chamber. Method for processing an article (363) with a dense processing fluid in a processing chamber (362) while applying ultrasonic energy during processing. The dense fluid may be generated in a separate pressurization vessel (303,305,309) and transferred to the processing chamber (362), or alternatively may be generated directly in the processing chamber (362). A processing agent may be added to the pressurization vessel (303,305,309), to the processing chamber (362), or to the dense fluid during transfer from the pressurization vessel to the processing chamber. The ultrasonic energy may be generated continuously at a constant frequency or at variable frequencies. Alternatively, the ultrasonic energy may be generated intermittently.