CLEANING ELECTROPLATING SUBSTRATE HOLDERS USING REVERSE CURRENT DEPLATING

• Main Authors: Kumar, Santosh, Chua, Lee Peng, Ponnuswamy, Thomas A, Mayer, Steven T
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 16.04.2020
• Subjects: APPARATUS THEREFOR; BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CHEMISTRY; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; ELECTROFORMING; ELECTROLYTIC OR ELECTROPHORETIC PROCESSES; METALLURGY; PROCESSES FOR THE ELECTROLYTIC OR ELECTROPHORETIC PRODUCTIONOF COATINGS; PROCESSES FOR THE ELECTROLYTIC REMOVAL OF MATERIALS FROMOBJECTS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

Provided are cleaning methods and systems to remove unintended metallic deposits from electroplating apparatuses using reverse current deplating techniques. Such cleaning involves positioning a cleaning (deplating) disk in an electroplating cup similar to a regular processed substrate. The front surface of the cleaning disk includes a corrosion resistant conductive material to form electrical connections to deposits on the cup's surfaces. The disk is sealed in the cup and submerged into a plating solution. A reverse current is then applied to the front conductive surface of the disk to initiate deplating of the deposits. Sealing compression in the cup may change during cleaning to cause different deformation of the lip seal and to form new electrical connections to the deposits. The proposed cleaning may be applied to remove deposits formed during electroplating of alloys, in particular, tin-silver alloys widely used for semiconductor and wafer level packaging.